A practice limiting the number of times a student can leave class to use the bathroom each quarter has ended at one St. Charles middle school.
Wredling Middle School Principal Steve Morrill said that when the passes, described as “bathroom passports,” came to his attention late last week, he met with administrators in his building and the practice was ended. Teachers continue to monitor when students ask to leave the classroom for any reason, he said.
“We don’t ever deny children the use of the bathroom,” Morrill said.
Parents have described the passes as a card allowing students to leave class to use the bathroom a certain number of times during a quarter. Wredling parent Melissa Walker has said her son had a “passport” allowing him to use the bathroom three times during a quarter, which is typically nine weeks. If he lost it — and she said Friday he had — he could not leave to use the bathroom for the rest of the quarter.
The practice became controversial on social media, where some commenters had said their children encountered similar practices in past years or at other schools, while others said they had never heard of teachers denying requests to use the bathroom.
St. Charles School District 303 spokesman Jim Blaney has said there are no districtwide or schoolwide policies about bathroom use.
Morrill said teachers are responsible for monitoring their classroom environments and that there is no buildingwide bathroom policy.
If a child makes a habit of asking to leave class, the teacher has an obligation to look into it and possibly have a conversation with the child or parents about the need to leave the classroom, he said.
“Our teachers very much have interest in supporting our kids with time management, organization and the decision they make,” he said. “So we do have an obligation to monitor when kids are asking to leave the environment, and we want to have a conversation with them about is this the best time, do we want to do this, whether it’s to go get materials or anything else.”
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