Bathroom doors removed at Maryland high school to curb smoking, vaping

A high school in Maryland has removed the doors leading into several bathrooms to discourage students from discreetly smoking and vaping, drawing complaints from pupils who say the decision is detrimental to their privacy.

School officials removed the doors to nearly half the bathrooms this week at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, Maryland, in response to students increasingly smoking and vaping inside, local media reported Friday.

“Broadneck High School has experienced an increasing number of violations of the Code of Student Conduct in bathrooms,” Anne Arundel County Public Schools said in a statement. “In response, the school installed doorstops two weeks ago and propped doors open ONLY on bathrooms where to do so would not invade student privacy. Those doorstops were unfortunately kicked off, so the school earlier this week removed doors on those bathrooms.”

“It’s unfortunate that it came to that,” said Bob Mosier, the county schools spokesman, The Capital Gazette reported.

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