One of the changes I've made lately to improve my health (which IS much improved, thanks) is to drink between 8 and 10 glasses of water a day. My face is clearer. My itchy dry skin is resolving itself. My system feels nice and clean and, well, flushed.
And if I had a kid at this school, I'd be outside with a picket sign reading, "Potty Rights for All!"
Under a new policy at the Lawrence Middle School (NJ), seventh- and eighth-graders are allowed to leave class for the bathroom a maximum of 15 times a month. As a result, some are afraid to use up their bathroom passes too quickly and end up with a full bladder and nowhere to go.
The pass system went into effect last month as a way to monitor the school restrooms and stop students from skipping class. It is the latest in a series of disciplinary measures school administrators have taken in response to behavioral problems that have included bomb threats.
I got news for that school. The way my bladder is now, I don't think I'd hesitate to call in a bomb threat if that cleared the way to the bathroom for me. And what on earth does regulating bathroom usage have to do with halting sociopathic behavior? It's unhealthy, and it's insulting to those students who aren't acting out.
"When my son Matthew used all his passes, he was then told he couldn't go to the bathroom," parent Susan Gregory told The Times of Trenton. "We called the school and were told the bathroom is a privilege, not a right. Then we were told if a child has to go to the bathroom more than three times a day, we need (to bring them) a doctor's note...
Urologists say the practice can lead to infections and incontinence.
"Common sense tells you the policy doesn't make any sense," said Dr. Christopher S. Cooper, an associate professor of urology at the University of Iowa who specializes in pediatric urology.
The good doctor mentioned "common sense." Get the feeling he hasn't had much contact with public school systems lately?
"I see lots of junior high kids every day who have problems with urinary tract infections from not voiding frequently enough," he said. "There is also an epidemic of constipation because kids are not consuming enough fluids."
While Cooper acknowledges teachers need uninterrupted time to teach, and that some students ask for a bathroom pass to skip class, he says a student who sits in class trying to restrain the desire to urinate will be distracted and won't be able to pay attention to the lesson.
No kidding. Let's see, they've already locked up the bathrooms between clas periods and are limiting to kids to gym, lunch, and those 15 passes per month. What are they going to do next - take out all the water fountains so that kids don't try to do anything disruptive like replenish themselves between classes?
Principal Nancy Pitcher thinks the policy offers students ample opportunities to use the bathroom. She said it was a necessary step to guarantee the safety of her students and encourage learning. The high school implemented a similar system the previous year.
Does Ms. Pitcher follow the same constraints? No? Then it's not ample. Schools can control discipline without draconian control over this most personal of needs. There are ways to control bathroom misbehavior without making the restrooms off-limits.
Ms. Pitcher claims some kids just don't want to follow "rules." Parents are countering that locking kids out of bathrooms would be illegal in other public places (not to mention something that Child Services would investigate in a home), so why should it be allowable in a public school?
Devoted Reader Regin sent this my way; Joanne Jacobs posted on it as well. The comments on her site are great. This one from "Jon" was my favorite:
It is abusive to not allow someone to use a bathroom. The authorities should be ashamed of themselves. Justifying their cruel actions as necessary to combat the actions of a few jerks is just the kind of zero-tolerance nonsense that will probably result in Ziploc bags of urine being left on their automobiles during the next school board meeting.
I wonder if it was the thought of this kind of retaliation that prompted this followup letter from Principal Pitcher at the Lawrence Township Schools website:
Our main goal at Lawrence Middle School is to provide the best possible education for your child during their middle school years. As you may know, we had a problem the first part of this year with constant interruptions to student learning because of bomb threats which necessitated evacuating the building for as long as 2.5 hours at a time. These bomb threats were usually written on bathroom walls...
We knew we had to get this situation under control so your children could feel safe at school and receive the education they deserve and need for their future success. In order to establish a positive learning environment, we closed some of the bathrooms at times when they could not be adequately supervised, and we instituted a hall pass system...
Although this pass system has virtually eliminated bomb threats and kept students in classes in our building, it has not been popular with some of our students and their parents...
To say the least. And can I ask a question? Sure, there are no more bathroom walls on which to write threats, but the kids who wrote those threats are still walking the halls. Was anything done to find out who they were? Wouldn't that have been more productive than closing the bathrooms? What's to stop these kids from writing a threat on a wall during class hours? My kid would be no "safer" just because you removed the element on which a little jerk could write his threats...
On Tuesday of this week Mrs. Biggs and I met with interested parents and staff members, talked about issues at the school and listened to their concerns. As a result of that meeting, we are making revisions to the hall pass system. The pass will no longer specify the number of trips to the bathroom but, instead, will allow the student to determine how he or she uses the 30 slots on the pass during the 20 days in a given month. Of course, we will also continue to allow any student to make additional trips to the bathroom if it is an emergency...
Mrs. Biggs and I met with students today to discuss re-opening all bathrooms...
There will be a meeting for all Lawrence Middle School parents next Tuesday, February 24 at 7:30 PM in our school library to hear your ideas, discuss our shared vision for Lawrence Middle School and talk about next steps. We hope you will attend.
Principal Pitcher is patting herself on the back for reducing the number of bomb threats. But if I were a parent there, in a small NJ town like Lawrenceville that is most definitely NOT a deprived community, I'd still be worried. What else is being done to find the kids who would do such things?
Posted by kswygert at February 24, 2004 10:43 PM