The bell sounds to begin class, when suddenly your body reminds you of all the water you drank earlier. What should you do? Raise your hand and see if the teacher will let you or pray you can hold it until the passing period?
In most cases the answer likely varies depending on the teacher. Some teachers allow students the freedom to go whenever they need. While others, leaning heavily on personal experiences, have decided to count trips to the bathroom as unexcused tardies.
Due to the wide spread variety in bathroom policies, 800 news set out to interview several teachers about their personal approach, how they arrived at it, and why they think their system works best.
Up first was Mr. Boesch, who clearly states his policy through his class syllabus.
“Students will receive one free trip to the restroom each quarter and anything after that will be counted as a tardy.”
According to him, seniors abusing their bathroom privileges gave rise to this strict policy. He also asks all students to leave their phone in a container before visiting the restroom.
On the other hand, Dr. Berry and Dr. Winchester, science teachers, take a different approach. Dr. Berry allows students to go to the restroom whenever they need as long as they go one at a time and take a bathroom pass with them. She also asks students to leave their phones in their backpack before they go to prevent distractions. Along the same lines, Dr. Winchester also allows students to go whenever they need, however she prefers they go during the first five minutes of class or towards the end.
Another key issue in regards to bathroom usage is during tests.
“During tests I ask that students leave their phones in their backpacks if they need to use the restroom.” says Dr. Winchester.
To me, this seems like an important aspect of bathroom policy to prevent cheating and giving some students an unfair advantage.
So which way is best? We can probably guess students’ opinions on the subject.
“Going to the bathroom is a basic human need, we shouldn’t have to ask permission.” says senior, Corinne Plumb.
While having the freedom to go whenever a student deems necessary might appear like an obvious answer, in my opinion, teachers face many factors when deciding their personal policies.
After listening to teachers’ policies I have a better understanding of how difficult it can be to trust students after watching their policies get abused in the past. Because of this, I would suggest that perhaps the best policies are based on the relationship that teachers forge with students. Specifically, I believe that students should be able to use the restroom freely (doing their best to be considerate to the teacher’s class time) and, I wouldn’t worry about phones except during test days. However, I would make this policy susceptible to change at any moment. For example if a teacher suspects that a student is wandering around or attempting to skip class then bathroom trips for that specific student would be counted as tradies.
Finally, while all teachers take a different approach to bathroom policy it is important to remember that students should be given the benefit of the doubt. So, I encourage teachers to trust us more, because as young adults we have a pretty good understanding of when we can hold it and when we got to go.
