Letting children use the bathroom during school hours is a controversial topic. Lots of teachers allow their students to come and go freely. But others come up with a lot of rules and regulations about bathroom use. These rules often cause a lot of issues for concerned parents.
A first grade teacher in Texas has left the parents of her students feeling outraged after she denied them bathroom use. According to the teacher, a student was acting inappropriately in the hallway, and instead of reprimanding only the offender, she punished the whole class. As a result, several students wet themselves during the school day. Due to her choices, the teacher lost her job.
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One of the parents posted about the incident on Facebook.
Amber Johnson, a parent of one of teacher Ashley Barrera’s first grade students, posted about the situation on Facebook. In her post, she shared a screenshot of the message Barrera sent to parents, allegedly minutes before dismissal. Parents told multiple outlets that the bathroom pass had been revoked around midday, causing the kids to walk around in wet clothes and shoes for much of the school day.
“Today, my class lost their privilege to use the restroom during class because they lost their restroom badge while being in the hallway,” the message reads. “Unfortunately, we had some friends who really needed to use the restroom and ended up peeing on themselves. I do want to apologize for that incident.”
Barrera then implored parents to talk to their children about “how important it is to use our thing [restroom badge] appropriately.”
Naturally, many of the parents are outraged by the situation.
“Pure outrage,” Johnson told KTRK. “These kids are traumatized and humiliated. They were made fun of. They were crying, begging, pleading, and asking multiple times to go to the restroom, and they were refused.”
Dad Joseph McCauley also spoke with the outlet saying: “If I sent my child to this school smelling like that, they would call CPS and have me investigated and try to have my child taken away from me. So, how is it OK for my child to go to school clean, prepared, and come home smelling like that?”
According to the outlet, the Conroe Independent School District’s code of conduct states that refusing to let students go to the bathroom is against school rules.
Many of the children were embarrassed and uncomfortable.
Another parent, who chose to remain anonymous, spoke with KHOU 11 after her child wet herself in class. “She was pretty upset, she had to walk around in soaking clothes and soaking shoes,” she said. “It’s very frustrating, it’s very frustrating.”
Mom Ashley Chancey has a son in the class. Her son was sitting next to a little girl who also had an accident. “He said the class erupted in laughter as kids that are 7 [years old] do. And the little girl was just absolutely mortified,” Chancey told KPRC. “He said there was urine all over the little girl. There was a puddle of urine under the chair that nobody came to help with, and nobody came to clean her up for the remainder of the day.”
The school principal addressed the situation, but parents fear it was too late.
KPRC shared the message Bartlett Elementary Principal Charita Smith sent to parents after the incident.
“This afternoon, we were made aware of a situation in a first-grade classroom in which restroom privileges were revoked. I have spoken with the parents of both students who, upsettingly, had accidents. The class will have a current staff member to serve as the substitute teacher for the remainder of the week while we complete our investigation into the matter. This incident is not indicative of the safe and loving environment we foster at Bartlett Elementary. I thank you for your support and continued partnership.”
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The teacher has been fired.
KHOU 11 reported that the teacher is no longer working at the school.
Conroe ISD released a statement: “Bartlett Elementary and District administrators were made aware of a situation after school dismissed on Wednesday in which a first grade teacher at the school denied students access to the restroom as a punishment. We have conducted a comprehensive investigation, and the teacher is no longer employed by Conroe ISD. This incident is not a reflection of the thousands of exceptional educators teaching in classrooms across the District.”
