In high school, a good friend of mine told me one of the reasons she was most looking forward to college was because she would have the ability to get up and use the restroom without permission or pushback. Sadly, in the decade and some change since we’ve been in high school, the often dictatorial rules around bathroom breaks haven’t come all that far.
Recently, one high school teacher’s bathroom rules were posted online, and the extensiveness of them inspired quite a bit of not-so-complimentary conversation. Let's just say, some parents aren't thrilled at the idea of what their kids might have to go through just to use the bathroom once they head back to school.
The bathroom policy in question involves nine steps.
The teacher's bathroom policy is a nine-step flowchart that each student needs to complete in order to use the restroom. The policy, labeled “Restroom Procedures,” was posted on Reddit.
The first words of the policy turned out to be controversial. It reads, “Realize that restroom passes are intended for EMERGENCY usage ONLY.” After students request permission from their instructor to use the restroom, they have to relinquish their cellphones.
Students have to answer a question once they return from the restroom.
For step four, students have to remember the answer to a quick question. The Reddit user explained that the quick question was a piece of trivia the student was supposed to consider while away in the bathroom.
After using the restroom, students must return to the classroom within eight minutes, and then they get back to class, they have to answer the quick question. At that point, they can retrieve their cellphone.
There are consequences for breaking policy.
“Realize that excessive EMERGENCY trips to the restroom will be cause to contact parent/guardian out of concern for possible health issues,” the policy reads.
The last step of the chart is finally when the students get to experience relief. But Reddit users argue that the policy might induce feelings of resentment in students.
No one seemed to understand the necessity of this policy.
“This has always seemed like the strangest power trip to me,” one user wrote before sharing her own experiences being denied the right to go to the bathroom as someone who has worn contacts since middle school. “According to [the school], it was not an emergency,” the user explained. “I can’t see, but that’s cool. Have fun when my mom, who works at the district office and is still close childhood friends with the high school principal, calls later.”
When users learned that this policy was the rule of the land in an art class, commenters were even more incensed. “This is for an art class??" one user asked. “So it’s not even like your art teacher is trying to prevent cheating, it’s pretty much just for fun. That’s nuts.”
Educators evidently do believe bad behavior occurs when students venture off to the restroom.
A staggering 8 out of 10 educators say that negative behavior, such as bullying, misbehavior, vandalizing, and more, occurs during additional bathroom breaks, according to a 2015 study detailed in The Atlantic.
After repeatedly being denied opportunities to use the restroom, “[Children are] very good at ignoring [their bladder] signals,” Christopher Cooper, a pediatric urologist at the University of Iowa, said. Ignoring these sensations can range from incontinence to urinary accidents. Cooper even noted higher rates of bladder cancer in truck drivers who often hold their urine during their extended work hours.
When being denied access to the restroom can lead to health issues, it’s clearly time educators find ways to balance granting freedom to students and managing misbehavior.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
