Posted on: Thursday, March 24, 2005

Students ask for stall doors

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

A girl needs her privacy, especially in the bathroom, but she can't get it at Wilcox Elementary School on Kaua'i.

Fourth-grader Nicole Rapozo has grown tired of doorless bathroom stalls and 4-foot-high partitions that the taller students can peek over, so she has taken her complaints straight to the top.

In a letter and petition signed by 21 classmates that the 9-year-old mailed to Gov. Linda Lingle last week, Nicole made a simple request for doors.

"Some of my friends complain that they don't get their privacy," she wrote. "I agree with them. Sometimes I am afraid of going because someone might look at me while I am using the bathroom."

"It's embarrassing," she said. "You don't want to have to go (to the bathroom)."

Only wheelchair-accessible stalls have doors, and Nicole said they are in high demand as a result. If they're occupied, girls must choose whether to wait or chance being looked at when someone else walks by.

Nicole and her peers are not the only ones who think the 48-year-old bathrooms need doors. A renovation project planned for this summer will put doors and higher partitions in the three bathrooms used by the older — and taller — students.

Principal Rachel Watarai said the bathrooms were one of the school's top three construction priorities. In fact, when Lingle visited the campus a couple years ago and asked Watarai what she needed, the governor ended up examining the maze-like restroom.

Sen. Gary Hooser, D-7th (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau), was given the same tour when he asked about the school's needs.

Lingle, who released the money for the project in November, said she was concerned about the problem and wants it fixed.

"We are working on expediting the process to come up with a short-term or temporary fix until the permanent doors can be installed later this summer," she said.

Because it will cost $60,000 for each bathroom, Watarai said there is only enough money for three bathrooms at first, and the school will have to hope for more construction money in future years.

Although the project is already in the pipeline, Watarai is glad Nicole took some initiative.

"I think it was good that she wrote. We encourage our kids to speak up," she said.

Nicole said she originally went to her father, Mel Rapozo, a Kaua'i County councilman, seeking help, but schools fall under state jurisdiction.

"I asked him that he should do it, but he said I should just write a letter," she said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.