The issue of locked school bathrooms has prompted increasing outcry from Cal students over the past few months.

Many students claim Cal’s locked bathrooms take away from their education and overall school experience because they spend too much time wandering around campus searching for an unlocked restroom.

The bathrooms in the main building, especially the third floor boys bathroom, are known to frequently be locked for seemingly no reason at all.

Senior Jessica Goodman is among the many students who are irritated over the locked school bathrooms, and went so far as to write a handwritten letter complaining about the issue.

“This is my plea to you,” Goodman wrote in the letter, “to unlock the bathrooms in the main building at all times.”

In the letter directed toward school administrators, Goodman voiced her concerns over the locked bathrooms that ultimately prevent her from fully being able to enjoy her time at Cal.

Although Goodman wrote the letter “as a joke” and didn’t actually send it to administrators, many of her peers favorited and retweeted her Tweet when she posted it on Twitter.

“I’m pretty sure I retweeted [the letter], too,” said sophomore Martina Pangillnan. “I’m glad someone actually had the initiative to write about how annoying the bathroom problem is.”

Bathroom policies vary depending on the teacher, but students are generally expected to return to the classroom in a matter of minutes. Many times, the few minutes granted for students to use the restroom during class can be unnecessarily prolonged or wasted if the nearest bathrooms are found to be locked.

Goodman described a time when she went to the bathroom during a class, but upon finding it locked, had to return to class and spent the remainder of the period unable to focus because of her need to use the restroom.

“It’s honestly just super inconvenient because then we waste so much time having to find a bathroom rather than finishing up work in class,” said Pangillnan.

But assistant principal Crystal Lopez said that students  who are annoyed by finding the bathrooms locked have only their peers to blame.

“The bathrooms are getting vandalized,” said Lopez. “It’s usually the boys’ bathrooms in the main building.”

Lopez said the bathrooms are most frequently locked so that the school can fix the damage done due to vandalism.

“It’s mainly the boys doing things like pulling the soap dispensers off the walls and sticking paper towel rolls in toilets,” said Lopez. “Every single time we replace something vandalized, it’s immediately vandalized again.”

Students acknowledge the vandalism in bathrooms across campus, but they believe the damage isn’t bad enough to warrant having some bathrooms locked much of the year.

“All the stuff I’ve seen have been petty stuff,” said senior Gabriel Melaku. “I’ve seen a bunch of paper towels in toilets and urinals, and sometimes kids kick the stall doors in.”

As the school can only do so much to control these occurrences of vandalism, Lopez believes the solution is for students to simply stop vandalizing the bathrooms if they wish to have them unlocked.

“Sometimes the girls’ bathrooms may be locked to fix leaks and other issues,” said Lopez. “But we lock the bathrooms to fix pretty significant damages from vandalism that cost a lot of time and money to repair.”

Many students agree with Lopez and recommend their peers stop vandalizing the bathrooms.

“People should just stop clowning,” said senior Darren Lin.