Parents of Moline High School students are raising concerns after the Moline-Coal Valley School District removed doors from the school’s restrooms. Candace Sountris, Director for Public Relations and Communications for the district, explained the decision in a statement.
“The doors are currently off and have been on and off the bathrooms for the past few years. The primary reason is vaping,” she said in an emailed statement.
Many families worry about safety, security, and student privacy. Sountris addressed those concerns, saying there are no locks or loose items inside the bathrooms that could be used to barricade doors. In an emergency, staff are trained to move all students in hallways and bathrooms into the nearest classrooms, which is the procedure they practice.
She added that removing the doors helps staff monitor behavior. “Regarding safety in terms of supervision and addressing bad behavior, this is precisely why the doors have been removed. Staff can better hear and detect vaping from the hallway when the doors are removed. Regarding privacy, for most of the student bathrooms, you cannot see the stalls from the doorway. The few where you can, they have placed or are working to place ‘wing’ dividers to provide further privacy until the student bathrooms can be fully renovated, a project slated to begin this summer.”
Sountris said vaping continues to grow in schools, and districts have limited options to address it. “Vaping has become a public health crisis and a youth epidemic that schools cannot solve alone, and school-based consequences can rarely address the issue for those who have become addicted. School Resource Officers can no longer ticket for vaping due to a change in IL law, and it rarely qualifies as an exclusionary offense per SB 100. Vaping can set off smoke alarms and vaping technology is not dependable. This is not just a Moline issue. It is happening here in our region, our state, and across our nation. We welcome solutions and are addressing individual concerns as they are received.”
Doors will remain removed from student restrooms on the first, second, and third floors until the full bathroom remodel begins in summer 2026. The project will take two years to complete. No restroom doors will be removed at other schools in the district.
A petition on Change.org urging the district to keep the doors on Moline High School restrooms has gathered more than 650 signatures.
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