Just yesterday, I was scrolling through facebook when I happened upon this a link to this photo. Essentially, a teacher had given out a form stating that she would not allow her eighth graders to use the bathroom, get water, or go to the nurse's office more than twice a month. If a student were to leave the classroom more than twice, then they would receive detention and a zero on whatever assignment the teacher was going over at the time.
When I first read this, I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought that this was an awful joke. I couldn't imagine that a middle school teacher would prevent her kids from using the bathroom or going to the nurse.
It's ridiculous to penalize a kid who needs to use the bathroom during school hours more than twice per month.
You can't help when you need to use the bathroom or when you're sick. If a kid needed to go to the nurse but had already gone to the bathroom twice that month during class, then they would be punished, and their grades would be affected by it as well. That is absurd.
I understand that there will be some kids who deliberately use going to the bathroom as an excuse to get out of class, and as a teacher that's probably frustrating. However, I believe that a teacher would be able to differentiate between the kids who don't want to do the lesson versus someone who needs to go to the bathroom. The teacher could privately speak to the students who are leaving her room constantly. She could request that her students try to use the bathroom during their lunch period. There are many better ways that the teacher could've handled this situation. She did not need to resort to this sort of punishment.
In college, I've only had a few professors that request students not to use the bathroom during class. The professors that have asked this are teaching courses that are only fifty minutes, and missing ten minutes for that class could cause a student to miss something important. However, I've never had a professor penalize a student for using the bathroom or leaving due to being sick, because obviously if it's an emergency, the student's health is much more important. While the document doesn't state how long the lessons that can't be missed are, I can only imagine that each subject would be an hour. Now, if a student had several of these classes right in a row, that would mean they would have to stay in the classroom for several hours straight. Students can't plan when they need to use the restroom or when they're feeling sick.
When I was in eighth grade, I was a good nut. I never got into trouble or received detention, but if I were to attend this school, I think that I would've gone to detention many times. There were some days where my period was terrible, and I needed to use the bathroom to make sure that I wasn't bleeding through my pants. I couldn't help that I needed to use the bathroom and it's stupid that a kid would be punished because they need to make sure their pants weren't covered in blood, or that they were punished because they didn't want to pee their pants.
This teacher is telling students that it doesn't matter that their body is telling them. She is telling the students that the math lessons that the students need to learn are much more important than if they wet themselves.
I genuinely hope that the administration at this school forces the teacher to change because frankly, it's just cruel.
