Bathroom breaks - school , work?

Tennessee teacher's 'petty' note restricting bathroom and nurse breaks goes viral, sparks outrage

Thoughts?

 

I’m sorry. I didn’t report you or anything. I was simply curious where you were coming from. I still am.

I’ll open up by starting first.

I think the teacher was trying to keep her head above water and was trying to find a way to stop students from walking out to “use the restroom” as a way of avoiding class.

Although, I live in Texas which is more strict than other states, I’ve seen this type of policy employed by other teachers. I’ve also seen even stricter policies employed by others.

One reason why I was not offended by your comment was that one of the more strict policies of no bathroom breaks under any reason was an older black woman who had an ultra-rare continuing contract. When school secretary mentioned her policy as the way teachers should handle letting students use the restroom, I point this out. A white male would have difficulty doing what she did.

In NYC, a latino teacher would regularly slap students in the face when they did something wrong. A white male teacher would never get away with this.

What some people don’t understand is that race and sex does matter in education. (It matters more than spelling.) Maybe in some future utopian society it won’t. But in today’s society, sex and ethnicity matter. So, it matters in education.

What gets me about this article is that the news agency took a minor affair, which could be solved within a community, and decided to crucify a teacher who from my point of view was just trying to do her job.

I actually liked your post the best because it wasn’t lukewarm like the other posts. I want to know what you are thinking because I actually have to deal with this on a practical basis. If you want to respond by PM, that’s fine by me.

 

It is a Charter School - not a real public school - so it seems like they don’t plaster the bad photo’s of teachers on the webpage.

That also likely means the parents chose their school. I’m not in Tennessee so I am not sure about their school laws. Education is local - not national.

The administration is 100% black with a 100% black student population - basically unheard of in public schools in Texas and likely so in Tennesee as well.

Charter schools tend to have higher turnover than the soldiers who served in Vietnam, so I really doubt the teacher had very much, if any, experience at the school. The article didn’t say and my brief research doesn’t show any evidence of the experience you’re suggesting - likely the opposite.

From what I can tell, the teacher was left to her own devices and took someone else’s suggestion. She likely has problems with classroom discipline and receives little support from the administration as can be seen by her self-deprecating remark - petty - given in the letter. I can tell she receives little support because the school did not have an official bathroom policy before she wrote the letter. The teachers were left to fend for themselves.

Tyrant implies a negative connotation to managing children. If a teacher lets the children run the classroom, the classroom will go to hell. A public classroom for children cannot be a democracy. It just doesn’t work.

 

Why is that the only option?

I can understand some wanting to prevent discomfort in the teenagers while they learn, but are you honestly thinking that a 50+ year-old on a bad diet is healthier than a thirteen-year-old?

And if society demands that a 50+ year-old stand and work non-stop for 5 hours straight, why do you think a thirteen year-old will have no choice but to pee in their pants if they have to hold it for less than an hour?

 

Hmm, interesting.

 

That's code-word for 2.

I just know from experience that this is not a very rare practice. (I would say about 1 in 10 teachers have used something similar.) That being said, teachers always make exceptions once the two get used up. But it was not unusual at all. Look here.

First Day of School

You can find them all over the internet. You're making this sound unusual when it really isn't.

Right on the Left Coast: Views From a Conservative Teacher: Allowing Students To Use The Restroom During Class

It's not uncommon.

Schools run best when they have a universal bathroom policy. If the teacher was using her own without permission, she could easily be fired for insubordination. I doubt she did this when there was a current bathroom policy. I doubt they had one or they would have stated what it was in the press release.

Are you saying that the bathroom pass issue was a liberal political statement? I don't see limiting bathroom access as a political statement. Could you explain this?