A teacher is facing backlash after she explained her reasons for denying bathroom breaks to students during class time.
A teacher has recently faced significant criticism from parents after explaining her controversial decision to deny bathroom breaks during class time.
The incident sparked heated discussions about student welfare, classroom management, and teacher responsibilities.
Parents expressed their frustration and concern, believing that such a strict policy could negatively impact the children’s health and well-being.
Teacher explained why she denies bathroom breaks for kids during class
She wants to maintain control in class
The teacher shared her reasoning on TikTok account @homelearninghaven, explaining that she wanted to maintain control in the classroom.
“I’m just sitting here on my lunch break, marking books, and I’m just thinking about the problem that parents have with teachers not letting their kids go to the toilet,” she began.
“Today, I had about three examples where I did not let the children go to the toilet.”
Students use bathroom breaks to miss lessons
She also wanted to ensure that students were not using bathroom breaks as an excuse to miss lessons.
“I said no because it would make the activity futile for both the child and their partner,” she explained.
According to her, too many students were asking for permission to go to the bathroom during class, and it was disrupting the flow of teaching.
“If you now go to the toilet, when you come back, I’m gonna have to explain the activity again to you,” she said.
By refusing these requests, she hoped to limit distractions and keep the students focused on their work.
“So there will be times that I, as a teacher, will tell your child, ‘Not right now, you can’t go to the toilet,'” she admitted.
“I think parents get defensive and seem to think that we just want to deprive your child of their human rights.
It’s not that. We’re humans as well, and most teachers actually care about kids, and that’s why they’re in the job in the first place.”
The teacher dismissed special treatment to parents’ children
She expressed the view that parents expecting special treatment for their children may not align with the structure of a mainstream state school.
According to her, the school environment is designed to treat all students equally.
“If you want your child to receive special treatment, mainstream state school probably isn’t the place to be sending them.
Some parents really are setting their kids up for failure in real life with all this pampering and entitlement.”
Parents get furious with her claims about bathroom breaks
However, many parents saw this decision as unreasonable.
They argued that children, especially younger ones, may not always be able to control when they need to use the bathroom.
Forcing them to wait until class ends could lead to accidents or discomfort.
Some pointed out that denying bathroom breaks could be harmful to students.
Holding in urine for too long can lead to health issues like infections.
One of the main concerns raised by parents was that the policy might not consider individual student needs.
For example, some children may have medical conditions that require more frequent bathroom visits.
If these students are not allowed to leave when necessary, they could suffer both physically and emotionally.
Parents raised concerns that the policy fostered an atmosphere of fear and control.
They felt it lacked trust and understanding towards the students.
When the teacher doesn’t let students use the bathroom, it might make them feel like their basic needs aren’t as important as following classroom rules.
This could create a bad relationship between students and teachers, making it harder for students to focus and participate in class.
Even though some people were upset, others agreed with the teacher.
They said that students sometimes use bathroom breaks to skip tough lessons or get out of tasks they don’t like.
From this perspective, the teacher’s approach was seen as a way to maintain discipline and prevent students from wasting time.
They believed that setting limits on bathroom visits would encourage students to plan and use the restroom before class starts.
honestly, I don’t know how you deal with parents nowadays it must be exhausting! One user said.
Toilet should be allowed whenever they need it, the second commented.
Ill be honest i told my son if he needs to go toilet and gets told no i as his mother permit him to walk out of his class, the third user said.
no it’s a basic human right! Another wrote.
If you need the toilet that’s all you will concentrate on.. so the child won’t actually be taking in the information and it’s likely it will need repeating anyway? Someone said.