My son (8th grade) was telling me about one of his teachers and how she's already upset some of the parents. The first thing was using a toilet seat as a hall pass. Which seems pretty stupid but not really upsetting. The second thing did bother me; she told the class that she would mark when the girls left class to use the restroom on a calendar so that she could keep up with their periods. WTF?! I remember being so embarrassed when I got my period in Jr. High. The last thing I would have wanted would have been a teacher keeping track of it. If girls don't leave her class to go to the restroom will she ask them if they're pregnant? Maybe teenage girls have changed.

The teacher told the class that the parents were shocked because she was from an inner city up "north" (somewhere in Virginia) and that only a small, rural school like this one would be shocked. Is that true, urbanites?

I would think it's anyone's right to privacy about their bodily functions.

Is she going to keep track of when your son eats Indian food so she'll know when he's likely to have the runs?

How silly.

Uh? How does she know they have their periods and aren't just peeing? And why is it her business? And is she not aware that girls that age aren't generally "regular" anyway?

I've worked in inner city schools. Yes we had to have a bathroom pass (and some teachers used huge things like a toilet seat or whatever, because it lessened the chance of it getting lost and because then if they were out in the halls effing around administration could say "You're supposed to be in the bathroom" - mine was a big gaudy bracelet), and we had to have a sign-out/sign-in sheet so that if any vandalism or whatever happened in the school we'd know who was out of our classes at the time that it happened. But to be keeping track of peoples' periods? No.

All I can think of is a) she's wackadoo or b) she's trying to scare the kids into never leaving to go to the bathroom during her class.

.

I think she's trying to play hip-urban-teacher-babe in hopes the kids will think she's cool. Oh, and the kids were supposed to wear the toilet seat around their necks.

I guess teaching's a lot easier then I've been led to believe if there's time everyday for tracking girl's reproductive cycles.

IMO, using a big stupid toilet seat as a hall pass is ridiculous. When you get to the bathroom, unless there's a hook on the door, the student will have to balance it on the sink or place it on the floor. And pretty soon, it'll be as gross as carrying a used toilet seat.

As for the other, I hope the female students in the classroom band together and refuse to tell her WHY they're going to the bathroom. It's none of her fucking business.

different teachers through the years have infuriated me with their nazi bathroom ideals.

A couple have flat out refused to let the kids go to the bathroom. I guess their thinking is they're goofing off, or trying to get out of doing something? Don't friggin care. If that's the case then rethink your teaching to make kids want to sit in class.

It makes me mental. Some kids need to go more often than others. Some girls with Aunt Flo visiting might have to readjust stuff that 'ain't quite right'. Some kids, like Lindsay and her migraines have only a few minutes notice before they're going to toss their cookies.

I don't ever recall this stupid tactic when I went to school circa stoneage.

My kids are allowed to go during homeroom on their own. They're not missing instruction and my room is right by the restroom so I can keep an eye on them as they come and go and make sure they're not messing around.

Then we go as a class after lunch (2nd period).

During my last two classes, I usually call tables to go together (4-6 students at a time) while they're working independently, not during insturction time, and again, keep an eye on them from the classroom.

There were times when I wanted to ban bathroom breaks all together.  

My students had a sign-out sheet so that if something did go awry in the bathroom the Admin. could say which kids were in the bathroom at the time of the incident & were therefore most likely responsible for acts of vandalism etc.. 

I teach grade 4 - constantly going to the bathroom in that age group is almost exclusively a male problem.  Grade 4 girls generally do not pester the teacher to go to the bathroom 2 or 3X a day.  I only got ticked off with boys having to go constantly not girls. 

The teacher in question sounds to me like a nutbar . . . but I suspect she has had to put up with a lot of kids going to the washroom to goof off.  It isn't happy when, as a teacher, you feel as though you are constantly being taken advantage of.  Her methods of dealing with it though seem extremely unorthodox & punitive to say the least. 

What I suspect has happened is that a lot of kids have abused the privilege of going to the bathroom to goof off on her watch.  I don't doubt that a lot of pre-teen or teenage girls go to the bathroom to chat with friends, pass notes, or daydream . . . or whatever they do there.  I am guessing that when she confronted one of the girls about her constant disruptive behaviour (getting up and leaving the classroom to go to the washroom to chat with her friends) the girl replied that she had to go because she had her period & it was an emergency.  The teacher is getting back at them.  Bit of a power struggle is possibly the case as well.    

I had a teacher like this. She was from Detroit and was hell bent on teaching all us stupid hick kids what a bad ass detroit bitch she was. Turned out she was just a fucking cunt.

Emokid is throwing slomo dove at my face, I guess that means he flipped me the bird

I had an art teacher in high school whose bathroom pass was a huge golf bag. His reasoning was that it was too much of a pain in the ass to schlep any further than the restroom and back.

I don't give a shite 'cause I got my Guinness Stout!

Man. I am so glad I didn't "live" in your decade, Amy. Innocent until proven guilty... ?

It had the desired effect. We used the restroom before class, like we were supposed to.

I don't give a shite 'cause I got my Guinness Stout!

Sell your house and move.