I 100% agree with this. I'm a teacher and I'm the one who always deals with half a dozen kids wanting to go the minute I walk into the classroom. Why? BECAUSE I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO ALLOWS THEM TO GO, DESPITE INSTRUCTIONS FROM MANAGEMENT NOT TO. I've had IQMS points docked for allowing kids to go. I DON'T CARE. I WILL NOT MAKE A CHILD SUFFER. They may only go out one at a time because otherwise they use the bathroom as a playground and make a mess, but that is also a rule that can be bent in an emergency. Every day I hear the junior (Grade 1 to 3) classes calling for a GA (general assistant) to come and clean up wee, vomit or poo because a child couldn't hold it. Not going to let that happen in my fifth grade class. Hell no.

My kids know if you need to go and the teacher says no, just go anyway. I'll deal with the fallout if they get in trouble

My daughter, who is 7, came home the other week and someone in the class had pooped in her wee drawer under her desk, on top of her work - I'm still really absolutely baffled as to how this could even happen in a classroom without anyone seeing anything - when the school said someone had a 'bathroom incident in her personal space" I assumed they meant someone near her peed themselves, but nope, poop in a wee drawer. Was a substitute too so now can't even ask what the hell happened as no-one knows - but could've easily been a kid who asked to go and was refused and they pooped themselves and panicked and lifted it from their pants into the first drawer that was available - I wet myself when I was about 5 in school after asking to go and was told no yet the teacher had the cheek to then ask me why I didn't tell her I really needed to go? Why would I have asked if I didn't -I wa5 6, I loved school as it was still fairly new and hadn't even occurred to me to skive from a class

I peed my pants when I was younger because I was too shy to ask to go to the bathroom. Not sure this would solve the problem, but making it more okay to go to the bathroom might have made me more okay with asking to go. I would hear the teacher say no to other kids or say "We just had a bathroom break" and get all fussy with the other kids about it that I was terrified to ask.

A form of abuse.

A teacher should not get to decide whether a kid gets to go to the toilet. When I was teaching primary school the only consideration was whether there was already a child in the bathroom and depending on whether either child was likely to be disruptive, have the second wait until the first was back. If I couldn't trust a child to come back in a timely manner I might send a more responsible child with them. At high school age, every student should be trusted to do the right thing, and if they betray that trust, chances are they will be caught.

As an elementary teacher as well K-5. Many kids will abuse the bathroom to avoid doing any work. Senario #1: Student asks to go to the bathroom we start an activity he/she now wants to do. After a few minutes I ask: do you still need to go? NO. #2 I finish explaining an assignment. Student needs to go. I ask do the first problem they answer: I don't understand. I explain, the light goes on, I ask do you still need to go? No! Many times, i'll tell them as soon as I finish explaining this, then just go...

I just recall the teachers saying, "if I let you go then everyone is suddenly going to have to go too".

One time when I was in first grade, I asked to go to the bathroom because I had to go really bad but the teacher said that there was only ten minutes left of class and that I should hold it. Well, I couldn't and had to do the walk of shame to the family resources office to get new pants. It was horrible.

Every single teacher I had would never have a problem with it. They would, however, point out in the beginning of the year that if we were frequently using the bathroom (i.e. ditching class) then said teacher would say they might need to call home to say we might need to see the doctor. Good way to keep the kids from ditching class while making sure we could use the facilities when needed.

I agree with the writer that If a person abuses the freedom to go to the bathroom Then that person should be limited. But menstruation is messy and people have to be allowed to manage it. I leaked all down my leg 30 years ago and I can still vividly remember the humiliation and years of mocking because of it.

UGH THIS

IDK but is it regarding safeguarding maybe? The kids need to be under the watchful gaze of their teacher until that responsibility passes to another member of staff for lunch or whatever? Just speculating because I honestly can't think of another sensible reason to prevent kids going to the toilet.

this should be illegal

YES! My son, at 5, had 2.5 bathroom breaks a day... Im a grown man and I go more than 2 or 3 times a day...

This happened to me in the first grade. And in addition to the embarrassment of wetting my pants, the teacher made me wash up the floor, crying, as the other kids in class laughed and stared. As an adult, I call BS on that behavior. As a child, I just had to suffer.

I agree with this but right now the only boys' bathroom on the playground is down AGAIN because kids go in there and break things, pull dryers off of the wall, jump on the sinks until they break, and, my personal favorite, smear feces on the wall. And when that happens the teacher will always be asked why we let the kids spend so much time in the bathroom. I let kids go all of the time. But I have to hear about it when you've not taught your kids how to use a bathroom before they get to school and have to do it on their own.

Here is another idea...design schools to where there are single occupancy bathrooms between classrooms. That way the teachers can take bathroom breaks too instead of having to run a 100 yard dash in 5 minutes to get back between classes.

I can understand having them ask (just so that you know where they are in case something happens), and maybe even saying "If it's not an emergency, you can go when we're done with this" (my science teacher's basic policy), but I don't understand refusing to let them go to the bathroom altogether - even as someone who very rarely needs to use the bathroom at school.

In the school my kids went to uo to age 7/8 each class had toilet in the class and the kids could go whenever they needed

Learning to use the bathroom at controlled times is an essential part of child development. And I did pee my pants once or twice in the 1st grade. I survived.

ya in my elementary school there was just a piece of paper on the board, if u needed to go you would just write ur name on it, then when you came back you would cross ur name out. no needing to interrupt the class or talk about it

In my middle school, we were only allowed to go once a week in each class or we had a 15 minute detention. If that didn't make sense, basically if I used the bathroom in my 3rd period class on Monday, I couldn't even ask to go in that class for the rest of the week. Same goes for all classes. I used to hold it for 6 and a half hours because of that.

Agree. Sometimes you don’t need to use the restroom, you just need a moment alone.