I don’t think it’s the worst idea in the world. These are high school students, who presumably have the mental and physical ability to control their bladders (I would expect that this rule is not in place for students in special needs classes). On the rare occasion that a student truly can’t “hold it,” they can use one of their three breaks for the semester. Frankly, I think this can help prepare students for the working world, where you can’t always go to the bathroom whenever you want (if I’m have to sit in a 2 hour meeting, I know that I need to use the restroom before the meeting).

The high school I attended was huge. If you were unlucky enough to have a class on the extreme other end of the school from the one before it you had to rush to get there on time. Probably half to 2/3 of the students didn’t use their lockers because they were just assigned alphabetically and chances were good you would never have time to stop and change books. There also wasn’t enough time to do it after school if you had to ride the bus.
I think the three bathroom break limit per semester is not good. I would have more than 3 cycles in a semester and usually had to leave a couple times during that week to make sure I wasn’t leaking. Even if the school had given us extra time to allow for bathroom breaks in between class there would almost always be a line. We had a bathroom on each hall of 30 classrooms with approximately 30 students each. Assuming half of them were girls and the bathrooms only had 5 stalls, that was about one toilet for each 90 girls.
As long as the student is keeping up with the work and isn’t gone for long stretches on a regular basis they should be allowed to use the bathroom when they need it. They are old enough to start to make judgement calls on if they should take the break in the middle of the lecture or wait until they are independently working.

I hate policies like this. As to the commenter who says it is preparing them for the “real world”, and can’t get out of a 2 hour meeting to go to the bathroom, really? I regularly check out of meetings to use the restroom and have never caught any flak for that. I’ve been working in an office environment for over 10 years. If I had someone discipline me for that I’d find another job (seriously). These kids don’t have that option.

In high school I had classes far apart and an inconveniently placed locker. Thank goodness I didn’t have teachers that made going to the bathroom an issue. If you needed to go, you went. And then borrowed notes afterwards for anything you may have missed. Besides what if your tampon starts leaking? You should just sit there and bleed through your pants? Ridiculous.

I’m a teacher and have an open bathroom policy in my classroom. I’ve had the same policy for 11 years and have only had to address the issue with maybe 5 students.

One of the best high school teachers I ever had accepted the fact that her students knew when they had to go to the bathroom-so we didn’t have to ask. Her main rule was we weren’t to go during lectures or student presentations, and that if we were caught sneaking off to the vending machines or whatever, we would lose the privilege. And you know what? It worked. She treated us with respect, and we respected her policy. Limiting bathroom breaks seems dehumanizing and cruel, and shows a complete lack of respect and understanding for bodily autonomy.

I think this is unusually unfair to high school girls… I’d get a doctor’s note.

Kids need to be allowed to go to the bathroom when they need to go.

Yes, let’s all make rules based on the behavior of the kids who are committing actual crimes, rather than honor students who just need to change their tampon or bleed out in front of the entire class. That’ll show them. Seriously, who would even send their child to a school where all this was allegedly going on?

Keep in mind that we teachers are capable of making exceptions to our rules on a case-by-case basis. I have a three passes per quarter rule for each of my classes, but I certainly make exceptions to it as needed. You can tell when a student’s request to use passes beyond the third one is legitimate and when it is not. The look of pleading/panic on the face of a student who truly needs to leave but knows he/she is out passes in unmistakable. Things are rarely as black and white as they seem.

Something to also consider – teachers do not have the option of using the restroom during classes, and getting there between classes is exceptionally difficult. If we are capable of – with exceptions to emergencies of illness and/or periods catcing us by surprise – managing our biolgical functions, is it that unreasonable to expect the same of older teenagers?

Yes J- since I for one, would NEVER have chosen a profession that did not permit me to urniate or defecate when by body needs to do so. Why assume every kid is going to choose a career with such restrictions? Sounds unreasonable to assume tat.

Goddess,

The my kid is entitled to do whatever he or she sees fit the minute she or he wants attitude is not going to help a child be successful.

Basic skills like planning ahead and being able to control bodily functions are a necessity for all, not just future teachers. Does your kid want to be a lawyer? Do you really think she’ll be able to get up mid testimony to take a dump? Does she want to be a construction worker? Might get frustrating if she forgets to pee before she goes to the top of the skyscraper every day. Does she want to be a surgeon? a nurse? a cop? a fireman? a chef? a pilot? a mom?

Seriously. It’s a basic skill and they need to learn it.

Lucky you Bunny.

But guess what, many people aren’t that lucky and getting all self righteous over something so trivial is silly.

Little Frogs- I HAD a teacher who wouldn’t let me go when I needed to, despite being asked 3 times- and in TEARS, and I shit myself- in 5th grade. If that strikes you as silly or trivial= you have NO business teaching children ever, at ALL. And I will take that attitude into account on every single future post of yours.

“But guess what, many people aren’t that lucky and getting all self righteous over something so trivial is silly.”
You started it, lady. I’m not going to go quoting you, but you’re the one who’s claiming that a reasonable boss would make someone crap themselves at work, which simply isn’t true.
In any case, your lack of compassion is disturbing to me. If that’s self-righteous, it’s not any more so than any of your comments. pot, kettle, self-righteous. And if you refuse to give out passes and kids soil themselves in your class, you are, no pun intended, a shitty teacher.

I feel sorry for you and your cynicism Little Frogs. And I feel sorry fo the kids who are reduced to the lowest common denominator in your class. I feel lucky mine haven’t encountered your ilk yet. And yeah, one’s ready to graduate college summa cum laude.

Since when is respecting the bodily intergity of children the same as raising them to be “entitled to do whatever he or she sees fit the minute she or he wants”? Are you seriously suggesting that children aren’t entitled to relieve themselves? Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds? By that logic, maybe we should stop feeding them when they’re hungry or clothing them when they’re cold. These are basic human rights. It makes me ill that someone who is an educator can’t seem to grasp that.

@Michelle & @Linda — Well said. I agree.

IBS. Failing to heed body signals will give you a shiutty accident. Fist-sized clots. Failing to change a saturated tampon can lead to toxic shock syndrome.
Try planning for those.

Little Frogs is totally missing the point. Of course, high schoolers should know how to plan ahead for bathroom visits, but the point of this rule is not to teach kids to control their bladders or bowels. The point is to punish and control the kids. And yes, they know the difference. It definitely matters why the rules were made and what problems they’re intended to address. You are sending a pretty big message to kids when you make arbitrary rules, even if they’re “trivial.” Even in a high school, rules should be logical and fair and should jibe with the educational mission of the school. Otherwise, what kind of citizens are we creating? Certainly not citizens of a democracy.

If you have the kinds of disciplinary problems where kids are defecating in the water fountain, guess what, those kids will just find another opportunity to defecate in the water fountain.

Fist sized clots are not an illness- just a fact of menstruation for many women. And most girls would DIE to have their male teachers aware of that.
And wow- I’m not sure what kind of schools you have, but the problems you are describing just aren’t that prevalent here. Clogged toilets is the worst we’ve had.
I refuse to have my kids reduced to the lowest common denominator and have them bound by Draconian and disrespectful measures.
They’ve never had to leave the room to take care of business yet- so get the “entitlement” crap off the table. But they are aware that if a problem of this nature arises and the teacher is being unreasonable they are NOT to shit, urinate or bleed in their clothes. They are to go use the restroom and then go straight to the office to have me notified.

And no, fist sized clots are not normal. THAT would be indication of a need to see the nurse.

“So basically, you’ve told your children that their teacher is not to be listened to and you will back them up when they walk out of class without permission.” Yup. I told my daughter this in the 3rd grade when she repeatedly asked to use the bathrrom and came very close to wetting her pants (she had an immature bladder and actually did have a history of wetting her pants at school, once as late as the 6th grade). After that incident, I sent a note in to the teacher the next day informing her that my daughter had her father’s and my permission to use the bathroom any time she needed to. I also called the school principal and read him the riot act and let him know that if my child had wet herself in front of the entire class, he would have had a livid, mama bear in his office first thing the next morning, rather than just a phone call. I’ve told all my children the same thing in regard to self defense. They all take karate, and while they are not the sorts of kids to fight with anyone, they know that if any child ever hits or kicks them, they have their father’s and my permission to take that bully down, school policy be damned. If you’re such a devoted educator, maybe you should be more concerned about what’s going on in the families of these children who are so completely disfunctional that they are defacating in the school water fountain, rather than worrying about what the well behaved children of people like myself and Godess are doing. You don’t seem to grasp the larger concept of teaching bodily integrity and ownership to children. Between this and your position on the sharpie on the boys head, it’s just disturbing. Being a teacher doesn’t give you authority over another person’s body.

Yup- I’m with you on the bathroom AND the self-defense. I’ve told my kids Zero Tolerance is for idiots and they have every single right- an obligation- to defend themselves. Especially when our idiotic policy will give the victim the same [punishment even if he lays there getting pummeled and doesn’t try to defend him/herself.

This rule is completely unrealistic and it’s gonna cause more drama than what it’s worth. I could understand a twice a day bathroom break pass, but a 3 bathroom break per semester? Are they completely out of thier minds?!!!! Kids are just gonna find another way to get out of class, and most of them wll wind up in the nurse’s office instead, and then what? Teachers are gonna deny kids from going to the nurses’s office too? All it takes is for ONE KID to have an unnecessary incident happen b/c of this dumb rule and then the school and district will have a lawsuit to deal with. Girls need to spend more time going to the bathroom b/c they need to change their tampons/pads and this needs to happen at least 2x a day per day while on thier cycle. What if a child has IBS, are they gonna need a special pass and then be outed to other students b/c of it? Like I said, this is gonna cause way more drama than what it’s worth. I’m so over these schools coming up w/stupid rules that go against common sense!

Though maybe I will tell them to hold their vomit til they can make it to the teachers desk and let it go all over the top….just kidding….. unless it’s one that has told them they can’t use the restroom……

Cindy, my children will NOT defecate, urinate or bleed through their clothing in ANY teacher’s room. This DID happen to me in the 5th grade and they have my full support and permission to do leave the room if an unexpected situation arises and the teacher without the affected bladder, vagina or rectum refuses to let them go.

@Little Frogs- 4 minutes between classes is not enough time to get from one end of the school to another to get to your locker, go to the bathroom and get to yet another end of the school without being late, ALL while trying to get through small halls with students who have classes right next to each other standing around and teachers standing around and everyone else in that school blocking the way. Also, if a student is feeling sick, they (least not in my old school) couldn’t go right to the nurse. It was a school rule that you had to go to class first then get a note to go to the nurse. And then it was also a rule that at lunch you had to go straight to ether the library or lunch room and stay there, so you couldn’t use the bathroom then ether. And I’m pretty sure now a days most schools have security guards to roam the halls between classes to do two thing: 1) make sure students aren’t skipping and doing anything they aren’t supposed to and 2) make sure no one from outside is coming in the school when they aren’t allowed to be there. So students would have supervision in at least the halls.