Director of Student Activities, Athletics, Discipline and Security Russ Howard reopened the gender-neutral bathrooms on Sep. 11, after a month-long closure.

Howard said that the bathrooms were shut down after a series of student vaping incidents triggered fire alarms. On other occasions, there were problems caused when more than one student entered the restroom at the same time.

The original decision to close the bathrooms was reached jointly by all administrators, Director of Operation Don Parcell said.

The administration said the false alarms were disruptive, adding that their decision was influenced by safety concerns.

During the month-long span of the bathroom closure, the transgender and gender-neutral community only had access to one bathroom on campus. Students had to ask before they could access that bathroom, one located in the Nurse’s office.

A member of the Pali transgender community stated that he “did not feel comfortable having to ask to use the bathroom every time [he] needed to.” He added that he “hadn’t used the bathroom since school started,” because the remaining gender-specific bathrooms were not an option he was comfortable with choosing

Dr. Pam Magee met with the student on Thursday, Sept. 6, to discuss his concerns, but could not be reached for comment regarding the events of the meeting. However, the student said that Magee told him that the M-building bathrooms would be reopening soon.

Moving forward, the administration hopes to keep the bathrooms open with stricter enforcement of rules regarding access and conduct.

According to Howard, all those who abused the single-person rule were identified after administrators reviewed security footage from a camera mounted outside of the bathroom. A security guard is now posted in the area.

Parcell stated that the possibility of increasing the number of gender-neutral bathrooms was discussed with both students and administrators.