TEACHERS CAN SAY NO TO STUDENT BATHROOM BREAKS
Two attempts this spring to limit students’ bathroom breaks have led to shame and controversy, reports G. Jeffrey MacDonald in USA TODAY.
In late April, a sixth-grader in Ohio wet his pants during a standardized test after a teacher refused to let him use the bathroom. In early May, a California eighth-grader said he urinated into a Gatorade bottle in a classroom corner because his teacher had refused to dismiss him. Such cases, though perhaps extreme, highlight a daily challenge for teachers. They must balance classroom control with a duty to accommodate the varied and hard-to-predict biological needs of their students. In seeking that balance, should they ever say no when a student asks permission to use the bathroom? That’s a matter of debate among teachers, administrators and medical professionals.
“Students make requests frequently to use the restroom when they really have intentions to do other things,” says Peter Reed, associate director of professional development services at the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “The real key is for every student to expect, when he or she is in (a teacher’s) class, that the full amount of time needs to be devoted to the learning activities for that day. You don’t have time for anything else.” But some urologists worry about the consequences of waiting too long between trips to the bathroom. ”
Responding to your body’s need to urinate or defecate is a basic human right, or even one step below that, it’s a basic animal right,” Dr. Christopher Cooper says. “I don’t think we would (restrict) animals, yet we do restrict the kids.” Complicating matters is the reality that some students avoid bathrooms because they’re dirty, smelly havens for bullies.
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Teachers and administrators who would deny such a basic need are abusive. It is amazing that the sort of thinking that all students should be held hostage by the potentially bad behaviour of a few is positively antidiluvean (well really, just plan dumb). We all want to respect the professional judgement of educators, but such practices surely cast some serious doubt about some educators.
I am also reminded of the practice in my son’s Montessori school of even the youngest primary grade kids signing themselves out to go to the bathroom. As a classroom volunteer I recall the teacher saying that sometimes kids sign out to go to the bathroom just to take a break, and that she thought that was a perfectly appropriate form of self-monitoring. I guess it’s all in the interpretation.