An Illinois high school principal said a policy limiting students to three bathroom breaks per semester is aimed at encouraging students not to miss class time.

Evergreen Park High School Principal Bill Sanderson said the policy, which allows three breaks during class per semester with additional bathroom breaks requiring lost class time to be made up after school, is aimed at ensuring students don't use bathroom breaks as an excuse to miss class, the SouthtownStar reported Monday.

However, at least two parents, Linda Gigliello and Cathi Diamond, said they are worried about their daughters "holding it" when they run out of allowed bathroom breaks.

"It's not only that they have to make up the time. It takes up time after school when they may be in a club or have a team practice or catch a bus," Gigliello said.

Diamond said her daughter, Dominique, 15, has previously suffered from urinary tract infections and may be prone to further problems if she delays her urination breaks.

Copyright 2011 by United Press International

I believe exceptions would be made if it's a legitimate health concern. For all other cases, I can say from experience that bathroom breaks can easily be taken between classes without being late at all. This is bad news for kids in highschool, because I know for a fact I used bathroom breaks when I disliked a class, but it makes too much sense to refute.

- People use bathroom breaks in class to text on their phones. It happens all the time in schools across the country. I've seen it happen at my old high school.

- You can easily use the bathroom during passing. I had five minute passing periods at my old high school and it was fine. I know people who have less time than that and still find it easy to take care of.

- No fucks were given since I'm in college now and can take out my phone in class without the professor getting angry. As long as I go outside to make or receive a call it's OK. The joys of the adult world.

in my opinion this isn't just a class time issue, but infringing on a kid's personal rights. I found it restrictive enough not being able to move about the school without a hall pass (not that anyone checked, but still), now limiting bathroom breaks? I'd say make it a reward system, actually allow the kids to chose a "present" at the end of the year if they have a perfect attendance or very few missed days.

I'd first like to say agree with MKOLLER, college is so much better in the fact that you can do whatever now without the prof. caring.
But for high school students, that's terrible. I don't think that the whole mass of students should suffer for the stupidity of the minority of the class that skips out of class. And besides it is the teachers and disciplinary fault if they have allowed kids to become so relaxed about things that they could careless for class. Cause at least from my high school I know they were more relax as you became an upperclassmen, so basically by the time you were a senior most people were so damn lazy that they used bathroom breaks to skip out on most of class and such like that. Now those same kids are suffering in college cause they don't know how to do shit. Yes students should want to stay focused, but they are only children so the majority of them won't do shit unless directed in the right direction by their elders so thus the fault partially also falls on the staff of the schools. But that could just be me

I want to expand on your point, Kaosu. When I was a senior I would skip class regularly in my final semester. Some classes I had over fifteen absences, while in others I had closer to thirty-five. The thing is, I didn't do something as pointless as "I have to go to the bathroom." *DITCH* I either told my teachers flat-out I was gonna be doing something else productive, or I took a detention because I really had no more fucks to give.

But I want to point something out. It doesn't matter what GPA you have; if you miss too many days, you will not graduate. One of my friends had a 4.5 GPA but missed 49 days of school. One more and they wouldn't have let her walk. Period. So...go to school guys. And keep track of how many days you're missing.

Meh, I rarely use the washrooms anyways. I either piss/take a shit in the morning or when I get home.

Well if kids start shitting themselves does that mean the principal cleans it up? Poetic justice??

They should.

Teachers get more lax and stop caring whether or not you stay focused as you become an upperclassman in high school, because it isn't their job to make you prepared for the adult world. You might say it is, to an extent, but their actual job is to teach you the subject matter. If you don't want to learn it, you fail, and your character is not important to them unless they take it upon themselves to personally give a shit.

You say that, as children, they "won't do shit unless directed in the right direction by their elders." You have to realize that the laziest of them are the older ones: the ones only a year or two away from being in college. I say if they don't focus, they have all the right to stay inattentive. It's a sliding scale of responsibility that eventually ends up weighing entirely on the student when they finally enter college.

For the people just entering college who fail to get their act together due to old habits, they're simply learning the hard way, and that's how it should be. If they never bothered to get their priorities in order beforehand, they simply aren't ready for the adult world. You cannot blame public schooling on lack of basic competence.

I don't find the bathroom thing to be at all unfair. Inconveniencing, maybe, but there's really no other way to keep people going to class. Hell, they might not even care as much as they threaten, especially to upperclassmen - I could walk around the halls, and people wouldn't even check for my hall pass if I walked by them without looking suspicious.

There are some teachers at our school who limit the bathroom breaks to like 5 per semester and there's one teacher that if you leave the room at all, for any reason, then you get a 15 minute detention. And we wouldn't have time to go between classes since we only have a 3 minute period in-between classes to go to our lockers and get to our next class. I usually go after lunch, or during study halls, or I wait till I get home before using the bathroom.

>>11 Who the hell's your principal? Hitler? Stalin? Maybe even Osama?

wow..
thats really bad. i havent heard anything about this at school yet.

>>12 she really....sucks. And our superintendent decided they wanted to be involved with the students and teachers, so him and the principle both walk around during class time, look over your shoulder at what your working on, ask you to explain it, and then type away on their little I-pods. It's kinda creepy....It's like we have no privacy anymore...

Thats crazy. Im glad Im in my last year of school. I cant really deal with school all that much. Illinois is a crazy state to begin with. I would know.

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This is so retarded! If someone has to use the bathroom, they should be able to! If people are worried about texting, confiscate cell phones during class hours, between morning homeroom and dismissal, or something. Don't limit bathroom breaks. That's retarded!!! Some people have legit health reasons to need bathroom breaks, and should not have to make their bodies unhealthy due to stupid people who decide to text in the bathroom. WTF. The girl mentioned, Dominique, I feel bad for her, and anyone in a similar situation. Nobody should have to suffer like that for such a stupid reason.

I'm really glad I'm in college and can take a bathroom break at any time I need to... But even when I was in high school, all my teachers had certain rules on when a student could use the bathroom, but never did they restrict someone from going if they clearly had to go badly. Seriously, I've never heard of things being this bad... That's just horrible.

>>17 when I was in Elementary I used to get bladder infections because the teachers wouldnt let us go use the bathroom and it got so bad that I eventually had to get a doctors note saying that I could use it whenever needed.
(my school in all connected: the highschool, middle school, and elementary, its one big school)

The principal or anybody that came up with this plan must be cruel.People shouldn't "hold it in" for too long.Its bad dor kids to wait for so long.I say this is children cruelty.

I've had people going to "use the bathroom" before, then they come back 20 min later whispering to their friends how they just smoked some weed in the abandoned classroom. My high school is like a cheesy after school special...

Now limited bathroom breaks are appropriate in ELEMENTARY schools not fucking HIGH SCHOOLS! Why don't people have a brain in the gigantic heads these days???

>>19 The response to this argument is, can you really not hold it in for an hour, when you have breaks every hour to do whatever the hell you want and, in addition, lunch time?

On top of that, how many times a day do you actually have to go? Do you have a bladder infection? Because I'm sure they make exceptions for medical purposes.

>>21 Bottom line is, if you still have problems managing your time enough to make time to do things like going to the bathroom, you probably aren't ready for high school. The limitation was put in place because it's reasonable, IF the ones who must follow the limitation aren't half-retarded.

Honestly, you people make it sound like the fucking holocaust. Go in between classes, or hold it all day. No one's going to suffer traumatizing injury.

>>22 I really don't mind holding it in, or waiting till lunch, since i'm used to it by now at my school, so it's now too big of a deal. and not everyone has breaks every hour, or enough time in between classes, as i said in >>11

Unless you have a medical condition, this sounds pretty reasonable. I mean geez.... people complain too much. Instead of adjusting to the new rule, all they do is complain. Suck it up. >.> Three times a semester is already enough. Go to school in Asia or something and they basically don't let you go until class ends. I've gone to school in both Asia and America and one thing I've noticed here (America) is that students are WAAAY spoiled.... It's probably because of culture differences but I'm in freaking High School. Life's hard, deal with it.

Yup. School life's hard here in Asia. Ohasumi's right. We aren't allowed to leave till the end of class. AND even then we have a lot of teachers who say that we can't leave the classroom during class unless we're going to die or the principal's calling us.

You know, this thread really bugged me, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. Thankfully, the newest episode of the "Curiosity" series, entitled "How Evil are You" hit the nail on the head. All of this cramming of authorial power down kid's throats is not good. It essentially teaches them, as it did us, that our superiors are... well superior, better, richer, smarter, and that we should strive to be like them, and in the process do all that we can to get there, because that is success, and yet, do you know of one teacher that's satisfied with their job or place in society?

I'm probably going to go on a barely coherent rant, and that's because I don't have a chiseled and finished message, but rather, I'm still looking at a cubic piece of marble, and with your input, I'll try to shape it.

My theory is that we're going about education completely wrong. It's worked so far, but the norm has become obsolete.
What we are trying to do in schools, is sit a bunch of kids in one room, expect them to be quiet and take in the knowledge of the world, a lot of it that they don't even want nor will they need. Firstly, as any parent will tell you, it's a dam miracle that they have two kids or more in a room and are quiet, but how is this possible? mostly by using intimidation, we normally say that it's teaching them consequences for their actions; I say molding them into a pre-fabbed version of humanity that the teacher, influenced by his teachers before, established to be ideal.
So you essentially teach them fear, and to fear authority, soon after, you would implement a little reward program, by which you teach them that if they pay attention, do their homework, w/e, they get rewarded, they did good!

If this doesn't sound familiar is because no one will say that they are doing this, it's not on the curriculum, these are just the tools that are used in order to teach them, granted in small amounts, but what's the difference between a little and a lot to a kid's small mind?

If you'll watch the Curiosity episode that I mentioned earlier, you'll then see what I'm trying to say, basically that we'll do anything, as long as a man in a suit, and a badge and/or name tag tells us to do. Or at least the majority will, even if they feel uncomfortable, or even object to that action on a basic level; add a monetary incentive in relatively harsher times, and you can do anything with them.

I quite frankly don't know of a solution for this... this has been the basis of our education since it's inception. I'm just throwing it out there, and curious to see what might come back.

Extremist comment will invite extremist answers?

Anyways, how would you propose to do it another way? One possible way would be the USA's (insert "America is not a country" rant here) No Child Left Behind policy, where children are encouraged that their best is good enough and to be themselves. However, from what I've been able to observe is that it created a wave of self-entitled douchebags who believe that whatever anyone else thinks is unimportant. These people obviously wouldn't work well in a team, and most modern societies are built on the efforts and products of a team, regardless of the figurehead leading it. How would politics work if people flat-out refused to compromise or even contemplate another point of view? How would any large industry operate if people couldn't co-operate and take orders?

In short, like it or not, for the most part this method is needed. Children are malleable and will attempt to push every boundary possible at some point. Without someone telling them that they can't do certain things and why, they would do everything that occurred to them just because they can. If they don't get told that there is someone that they are accountable to, then they won't care about anything anyone says and will ignore everyone who says something that they don't like. You see it all of the time on the internet - "No-one can identify or punish me, so I can be the biggest douchebag I want to be!" Like it or not, but this system is needed to at the very least build a base from which appropriate (read not detrimental to society at large or self destructive) values and morals can be built on.

>>27 I don't really see what I've written as being extremist, merely suggesting that the norm is flawed and that we could do better.

Also, for my KG to 9th grade education, I didn't go to school in the US, and was beaten silly for not doing my homework -not to say that it's done here- but I'd think that that was extremist.

It is times like these where schools seem to be too rough on their students such as limiting their freedoms from little to none i mean why would they do that. "it can be used to miss class" is not 100% true since if they wanted to miss class they could just leave the school and go the next day. it just seems that the schools care more about their reviews to keep their jobs than the students since i was at a school like this once for my nephew and i withdrew him from it a week later and placed him in a more "free" public school.

it just seems that the schools are forgetting the reason that we have schools and that is to learn how to live and such but if they make it like a prison the students feel less likely to pay attention in class and find a way out of it all (meaning the school.) they should focus less on such things as bathroom breaks and such and focus on helping the students get through school and get them into the real world filled with knowledge.

I don't see why this is necessary. If certain students abuse their bathroom breaks (obviously so), then impose that limit on those students only.

>>29 Schools are actually there for education. Surviving in the real world is entirely up to the individual's mental fortitude, and it's nowhere in the job description of a teacher to get you ready for that. In fact, it's moreso their job to get students to score higher on national exams - and for teachers in subjects that don't concern them, it's their job to teach you material.

Some teachers do help out with students' lives, but don't take their kindness as an expectation of the norm. That's simply a bonus, and teachers have no real obligation to make sure you're prepared for the adult world. It's pretty much assumed that if you went through all of high school, anyone who would survive out there would have had the initiative to learn for themselves.

Though it seems in either case, students aren't going to pay attention, according to what you said. If the bathroom breaks weren't limited, they would all leave the class whenever possible; if it is imposed, then they just won't pay attention while in class. The difference is, they're still more likely to pay attention and absorb some material if they're present.

I'm not just saying this because I'm already out of high school, but students need to stop pussying the fuck out every time something mildly inconveniences them. It's extremely childish, and I personally palm my face every time they refer to something as small as this as "imposing on our freedoms."

Our forefathers didn't fight for freedom specifically so you could take a piss at odd hours of the day, god damnit. Students should focus less on such things as bathroom breaks and such and focus on getting through school and figuring out the real world on their own.

wow so if some one is on the crapper and he is "ill" then he bathroom brake is shorten because of other people is some bs. this is not very helpful for people with blatter problems they should really consiter the well being of others

I bump because I feel the pain of teachers saying "NO" when you ask to use the bathroom, but I'm a lazy shit so I'm not reading the whole arguement.

I still think that it's a stupid idea, if the kid doesn't like the class, he'll use any excuse to not be there. Do they have their dumb moments when they want to skip anyway? yes, but this empowers the teachers that don't care for the students, just the pay check, to go on and keep doing what they do, not trying to find better ways of keeping the kids engaged and interested in the material that he\she is trying to teach them.

Also bump, because... I really need to, but I'm in the bus...

Already faced this issue with my middle and high schools in Georgia -__- not big news it sucks but we tried fighting it, nothing happened..

Well my school had the same issue alote of kids werent gonna ake that so alote of reports of kids of eather having accident in the class or in the hallway because they cant make it to the other class..

example i had the same peobliem and because of the school i got sick because of houlding it and i ended up haveing bladder refux and i missed 86 days of school

yea the same is happening here in mississippi

so what should we do and say... like what can we tell the schools thell just back fire on us because were students

now thats just crazy just like who you get fined for saying christmas tree in the usa now cuz its now called a halladay tree cuz barack obama said so

>>41 lol wth are u smoking?

>>40 You can't do much about it as a student, only to keep talking and complaining to your parents about it, maybe pull up a study or two regarding possible problems of "holding it in". Also encourage your friends from school to do the same.

thats so stupid..the kids spend more time at the councilers than bathroom breaks, this kid in my class missed the whole class just to go and see the counciler and her dint have to make up time!

U can't make a kid "hold it in" that's just wrong in my book lol

yeah i mean who can hold it in i mean u can really mess your self up like that man

so what do u think we should do its not like we can come up to a teacher and say o im against that then they let u gooo

schools never follow parents belave me they dont care at all

I know a school that has instituted something called the "ten-ten rule." Students are not allowed to leave during the first and last ten minutes of class.
What do you think of this rule?

This is stupid... I mean, they really expect a student to use their bathrooms under three times within the semester!? I don't understand HOW teachers can consider idiotic rules like this to be fair!

Hahahahha!!! That is the most gayest rule in school ever... The student's bladder is going to explode. XDD

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