how would u deal with a school teacher not letting kids use the bathroom at school?

Question

when u got to go, u need to go, otherwise health probs consitpation + bladder weakness etc.

6yrs to 12yrs boy/girl

my girlfriend who is 20yrs now. had the same probs at her school, teachers would not let her go. when she was 16yrs she had a health prob she had a weak bladder i feel sorry for her.

Answer 1

OMG, Teachers are still doing this? WhenI was a kid, my mom had to talk to the principal and when that didn't work she had to go to the school superintendant.

It got so bad when I was in grade school in the late eighties that kids were peeing their pants all the time. I think the teachers got the hint after a while.

Answer 2

I feel that there has not been good communication between you and the teacher. The teacher probably told the kids that they could only go to the bathroom at break times, etc.
NO SCHOOL, NO SCHOOL is going to deprive a child from goiing to the bathroom in grade school. I have been a teacher for a long time and I can tell you the last thing I want is for a child to have an accident. No teacher wants that. It is not oly embarrassing to the child, it smells up the whole room, the child has no clothes, gets teased, leaves emotional scars, etc.
NO TEACHE WOULD DO THAT. They go into teaching because they love kids. A teacher may be teaching a lesson and ask the child if he/she can wait until she is done. However, if the child states that it is an emergency, they have to let them go.
Now, on the other hand in defense of teachers: Many children ask to go to the bathroom eight times in the morning only and then they play around in the bathroom and need to be supervised.
If that's the case, I have to escort the child, babysit, and then make sure all the other kids in my room are still learning. That's really impractical.
In middle and high schools, children are give a large amount of bathroom passes each month in case of ememrgency. They can go every hour at break time in between passes and are allowed to use their passes if it is an emergency. They love to hang out in the bathrooms too and just get out of class. This helps alleviate that problem. If they lose their passes, they get to go to the bathroom but have a consequence...... have to pay for new ones,etc.

Answer 3

I would ask this teacher why the children are not allowed to use the restroom as needed, and if one has an accident due to her "control issues", is she going to take the responsibility of cleaning the child up, and telling the parent it was her fault and not the child's. Depending on the child's age and grade, when they are younger some teachers take the class on a potty break, as they get older, they are allowed to go independantly. The teacher needs to have a good reasoning of why she is not allwoing children to use the restroom. I knew a teacher that had the same controlling issue, and a little girl ended up getting a bladder & kidney infection because she was not allowed to use the restroom like she needed. The parents were so HOT, they went straight to the Principle who had NO idea this was happeneing. The teacher was repremanded, and learned VERY quickly to let the children use the bathroom when needed, UNLESS it was causing major chaos, which is the teacher's fault for not being more organized or in control. The teacher ended up leaving after the school year was up, which was fine anyway, no one really cared for her attitude.

Answer 4

1. Contact the teacher and find out what is really going on. Sometimes kids make things up.

2. If it turns out to be true, express your discontent with the teacher, I find a written letter suffices. Make sure to send a copy of the letter to the Principle, along with a note explaining the problem.

3. If the above two steps do not work, arrange a sit down meeting with the principle and the teacher, and firmly request the teacher to explain her actions with her superior present.

4. If you still get no satisfaction and it continues, contact the superintendant of schools and set up a meeting with all three.

5. If the school system in general does not seem to want to help and you have exhausted all options within the school system itself. Pull out your student directory and start calling the other parents who have children in that class. If they know about what is going on, I am pretty sure they would be a bit upset too. Get them together and bring the lot of them to see the superintendant. If the situation has gone on this long, I woul suggest you also have a local news crew or at least a reporter from the local paper there to document this. If the super wants to keep his job at this point, I am pretty sure he will do something about it.

Answer 5

Yipes! Is this teacher using it as a punishment? Or is your child using it as an escape from responsibilities an inappropriate amount of times a day?
If the first one is true, I would try to talk to the teacher about it directly. If that didn't work out I would recontact the teacher to inform them that you understand the problem has not been resolved and ask if he/she would like to meet with the Principal or counselor to resolve the matter neutrally. If that doesn't work (they are co-workers) I would contact the Superintendents office telling them your prior steps and what it has meant for you and your child to have to go this far to resolve the problem.
If it is the second thing (going too often) your child may suffer from some kind of anxiety in the classroom...could be anything from claustrophobia to not liking the idea of moving on to a new task or something as unexpected as the fact that he/she may be bored with the class work because it is too easy for him/her.
Either way the teacher and you need a calm visit with each other to find the root of the situation and a better solution than what the teacher has come up with so far.
Good luck

Answer 6

Arrange a parent teacher conference. Bring medical documentation. Also, during this conference is a good time to see if there are any other issues. Sometimes the child is not telling you everything, e.g. that maybe she uses her "bladder problem" to get out of class more than necessary.

Is the student making good use of her lunch hour and breaks to use the bathroom? Or is she using that time to chat with friends, flirt with the boys, etc.?

Find out how the student could do better, and let the teacher know you care about more than just your child's bathroom breaks.

Answer 7

My son has a friend at school that this happened to.
At his old school as a prep (first year at school) they had a toilet pass, 1 per week. If you used it you had to ask the other kids if you could have theirs. This boy in the end wet is pants. This hit the national news because this is absolutly appalling. These children are 5 & 6 years old. This boy 18 months later is still effected by these events. The mother pulled him out and sent him to our school. If there is a substitute teacher the mum worries about the teachers policy on toilet time. At our school kids go to the toilet when they need to. The teacher may tell some kids no but that is because they tend to go for something to do. Kids get a "look" when they really need to go and they should be let to go immediatly.

Answer 8

Well there is a difference between an apropriate time to use the restroom, and inapropriate times. School teachers have plenty of times where they are willing to send their students to the restroom. Most teachers have rules against leaving the room when they are teaching or a test is being taken. They usually say that you can go if you are doing silent reading, or working independently.

If the teacher is not letting them go at all, then you can either call or email the teacher and tell him/her that your children are having problems not being allowed to use the restroom. Explain it to the teacher, they usually understand. If not, go to a higher athority such as the princeple. This should help. Sometimes they require a doctors note saying that your child has a weak blatter

Answer 9

Have you talked to the teacher? I'm a teacher and there are some kids that use the bathroom as a way to take a break from the assignment. They ask to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes. I understand needing a break, but if you're explaining an assignment and kids ask to go in the middle of the explanation it can be distracting to everyone listening and then you have to re-explain to that child when they come out of the bathroom. It takes tremendous classroom time and teachers are under so much pressure to get kids to preform well on standardized tests that classroom time is so valued and distractions such as the bathroom take time. I only let mine go when they are doing independent practice at their desks. (They can wait 5 minutes!) But I do understand what you are saying about the comfort and health of your child. You may have a teacher that is an extremist about the bathroom. So, go to her and ask her why she isn't letting your child go to the bathroom. She may have a good explanation, but if her bathroom policy seems to extreme for you and she doesn't agree to compromise with you on it. Then, the next logical step is to go to the principal.

Answer 10

Wow. This sounds like such a strange issue, first off I would write a note to my children's teacher explaining that getting to use the restroom when you need to go isn't a privilege...it's a Right. Children are not inmates who have lost the right to use the restroom when they need to (except in cases where the student is a habitual hall wanderer, just saying they need to go and abusing it by just goofing off) What about your 12 year old daughter? When it's that "time" and she's only a young girl who isn't used to having such an inconvenience and needs to change some thing or you know what is she supposed to do? 5 minutes in between classes isn't enough time to change class grab the correct books visit the restroom AND get to class "BEFORE time is up,"
most teachers I use to have in school expected you to be sitting down before the bell even rang again...UGH....anyway so tell your child's teacher that they MUST let them go or you will be forced to take the matter higher.