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It's not always a simplistic case of "bathroom abuse" or "teacher power trip."
In some cases, do teachers abuse power? Oh, certainly.
Do students? Well, think of this: Let's say I have a class of 30 students. Fifteen of them decide they want to use the bathroom. (This is not fiction.) I therefore have to spend time writing bathroom passes -- let's say, thirty seconds per pass. Students also have to come in and go out throughout the hour as they enter and leave.
At thirty seconds per pass times fifteen students, that's 7.5 minutes per period spent simply writing passes.
That's also 30 times the students in the room are disrupted by entrances and exits.
If this happens every single day, we have now lost 22.5 HOURS to simply writing passes by the end of the year. This represents your taxpayer dollars being (kinda literally) pissed away on non-instructional time, while the time not directly lost in writing passes is disrupted by entrances and exits.
It's not always a simplistic case of "bathroom abuse" or "teacher power trip."
In some cases, do teachers abuse power? Oh, certainly.
Do students? Well, think of this: Let's say I have a class of 30 students. Fifteen of them decide they want to use the bathroom. (This is not fiction.) I therefore have to spend time writing bathroom passes -- let's say, thirty seconds per pass. Students also have to come in and go out throughout the hour as they enter and leave.
At thirty seconds per pass times fifteen students, that's 7.5 minutes per period spent simply writing passes.
That's also 30 times the students in the room are disrupted by entrances and exits.
If this happens every single day, we have now lost 22.5 HOURS to simply writing passes by the end of the year. This represents your taxpayer dollars being (kinda literally) pissed away on non-instructional time, while the time not directly lost in writing passes is disrupted by entrances and exits.
Having wooden passes and having only 2 students at a time out of the room eliminates the time spent writing passes. That was something our schools implemented. The passes had the room number on it and were for bathroom passes only.
I haven't read the whole thread, but there is another reason one segment of the population needs to go more often, and that is girls that are menstruating. A small percentage that have really heavy flow may need more visits at certain times, and might need a little more time with each visit.
Unless we want them to wear some super heavy duty diaper, there are probably some girls on any given day that would feel most comfortable going to the bathroom every hour to two hours to assess the situation.
I haven't read the whole thread, but there is another reason one segment of the population needs to go more often, and that is girls that are menstruating. A small percentage that have really heavy flow may need more visits at certain times, and might need a little more time with each visit.
Unless we want them to wear some super heavy duty diaper, there are probably some girls on any given day that would feel most comfortable going to the bathroom every hour to two hours to assess the situation.
I had a girl come in late the other day and I informed her she was tardy. At the end of the hour, she, discreetly let me know that she was late becuase she was on her period and had to use the bathroom. I excused the tardy. IMO, this is the way it should be handled. She didn't argue about the tardy. She just came to me at the end of the hour. I'm ok with that.
Okay, I am not going to read 10 pages on bathroom passes (sorry), but I have two cents.
I give my students two restroom passes at the beginning of the semester. If they have them at the end of the semester, they are extra credit. If they use them both and still need to use the restroom, we call home each time. That is usually enough to put the kibosh on restroom abuse.
One thing I have noticed: Since obesity is rampant and students, in general, are eating larger portions, their need to go #2 is greater and it may come in the middle of the day. (TMI, I know)
The school should give the teachers two passes for the semester to use the bathroom. If they do not use it they should earn credits. The credits can be used for a big glass of water, or a small glass of water, except in New York City--where only a 16 ounce of water will be made available.
Okay, I am not going to read 10 pages on bathroom passes (sorry), but I have two cents.
I give my students two restroom passes at the beginning of the semester. If they have them at the end of the semester, they are extra credit. If they use them both and still need to use the restroom, we call home each time. That is usually enough to put the kibosh on restroom abuse.
One thing I have noticed: Since obesity is rampant and students, in general, are eating larger portions, their need to go #2 is greater and it may come in the middle of the day. (TMI, I know)
The school should give the teachers two passes for the semester to use the bathroom. If they do not use it they should earn credits. The credits can be used for a big glass of water, or a small glass of water, except in New York City--where only a 16 ounce of water will be made available.
I had a girl come in late the other day and I informed her she was tardy. At the end of the hour, she, discreetly let me know that she was late becuase she was on her period and had to use the bathroom. I excused the tardy. IMO, this is the way it should be handled. She didn't argue about the tardy. She just came to me at the end of the hour. I'm ok with that.
When I was in high school there is no way I would have been able to tell a teacher I was on my period. I would have been way too embarrassed, and I'm sure that's true for many girls. Especially if the teacher is male. They shouldn't be required to explain why they need to go.
I read through part of the thread, and I'm amazed at how often teachers have posted about half their class needing to go to the restroom at the same time. I can't imagine that happening at any school I went to. Very few people abused it at my school, and they were usually the same few "class clown" type boys who always did things like that. Not hard to recognize.
I was always very frustrated by not being allowed to use the restroom at school. Being allowed to use the bathroom should be a basic human right for children, and I consider denying them that right to be child abuse. I'd like to know how many teachers and administrators manage to go the full 7-9 hours (including commuting time) without using the bathroom?
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