Let’s Revise Bathroom Policies at SRHS

Lets+Revise+Bathroom+Policies+at+SRHS

Adamari Alvarado, Contributor

The bathroom policies at San Rafael High School need to be looked over. When it comes to the 20/20 rule and bathroom passes, there should be fewer regulations about the way we should be told when to use the bathroom. I’ve personally heard a lot of complaints about the 20/20 rule and how it is not very effective. I have to agree. 

The 20/20 rule is a rule that doesn’t allow students to go to the bathroom 20 minutes before and after class starts. This policy has been around SRHS for a while now. The only way you are allowed to use the bathroom, in this situation, is if it is an emergency. Quite frankly, it’s embarrassing to ask teachers to go during certain circumstances, especially if you are on your menstrual cycle. 

Mirza Hernandez, a sophomore at SRHS, says “It’s frustrating whenever I ask to go to the bathroom and my teachers ask why I didn’t go before, when I simply didn’t have to during that time.” 

Teachers at SRHS have been more lenient about using bathroom passes and giving the students freedom to go to the bathroom when they need to. Ms. Yi, an art teacher at SRHS, says “We (as teachers) don’t have to use bathroom passes, but some teachers choose to use them.” Teachers tend to use bathroom passes in order to avoid the problem of disruptions or students just using the excuse of going to the bathroom as a time to just leave the classroom environment. In a survey conducted by Society for Women’s Health Research, teachers were interviewed to see why teachers give bathroom passes. The popular response was that students would use this time to get out of the classroom environment or cause disruptions. 

Although this is true, teachers have found ways to avoid this issue. Mr. Bond, an English teacher at SRHS, had a very effective way of allowing students to go to the bathroom without being disruptive. At the beginning of the year, he let us know to raise our phones, instead of our hands to go to the bathroom. This avoided miscommunication and the student would quickly leave the classroom and come back with not much of a distraction. The issue of students leaving classrooms to wander around campus is another reason teachers give bathroom passes, which I find unfair. I believe that one student’s action should not be implicated on everyone else’s privilege. If there is an issue with the abuse of bathroom privilege, there should be restrictions put on that student instead of everybody. This is the only fair way this issue can be resolved. The people who need to use the bathroom can, and the people who are having issues with it can have rules that restrict their entitlement to go use the restroom. 

Some teachers at SRHS believe that having these passes limits the amount of misbehavior that can be found in the halls. This can be true, but it also limits the amount of times we are allowed to relieve ourselves. It’s unjust that teachers can have four bathroom passes per semester to go to the bathroom. If you run out of those passes, then you will need to hold it in for a span of an hour and a half. Not only does this make students uncomfortable, but it also distracts them from actually paying attention. Limiting the use of going to the bathroom can prevent students from actually learning. 

In a 2015 survey conducted by the National Library of Medicine, most teachers encouraged students to hold in their urine, which could lead to lower urinary tract health problems. This survey was done with elementary teachers. This just shows that at a young age, we are taught to not use the bathroom when we need to. Not only do these kids have to deal with holding in their urine, but they also have to deal with the fear of accidentally peeing themselves because they’re not allowed to go to the bathroom. Imagine, kindergarteners needing to go and the teacher being dismissive saying “No, you’re not allowed to go.” That just isn’t right to me.

What can we do to fix the issues of the bathroom policy? Well, we can start off by politely asking the admin to consider modifying the 20/20 rule to a 10/10 rule. It would be fair for students to have that extra 10 minutes before and after class to go to the bathroom. An easy fix for the bathroom passes is to restrict them to only people who abuse their right to go to the bathroom. They are very ineffective if they are used on everyone because it limits the way we can grow and become responsible for our actions. 

For the time being, using the words “it’s an emergency” might be the only way that we are allowed to leave. Although at times it won’t be a complete emergency, it can become a distraction. A middle ground I hope to see in the future is limited bathroom passes to the students that need them and the 10/10 rule. San Rafael High School students need to work with admin in order to meet these middle grounds.