"The high school bathroom is a fraught place. For some, it's a refuge - a place for taking care of their most personal needs and stepping away from the crowded chaos in the hallway for a brief moment of peace. For others, it's a site of health and safety hazards - a place where some students go to vape or to brawl, away from the watchful eyes of the adults at school."
"Fremont High School in East Oakland, for example, contracts with the software company Minga. Students use the app to check out digital bathroom passes, which have timers that go off after about seven minutes, when it's time to return to class. "Every student should have it downloaded," senior Gabriella Ponce Pindea said. "Like, you need to have it.""
"Several schools institute a ban on bathroom use during the first or last 15 minutes of a class. This leaves about 20 minutes for a classroom of teens to use the restroom during a typical period. Students are generally encouraged to wait until the brief passing periods between classes instead."
"At Oakland High School, there are different systems depending on students' academic pathways, the career-themed cohorts in OUSD high schools. Students in one of the pathways there get a finite number of paper bathroom passes at the beginning of each semester. Boys get five passes for each class, while girls - who may need more bathroom time when menstruating - get seven."
The high school bathroom serves as a refuge for some students and a site of health and safety risks for others, including vaping and fights. District-wide guidance is absent, so principals and teachers create their own rules, producing inconsistent practices across campuses. Fremont High School uses a digital system through Minga, where students check out timed bathroom passes that typically last about seven minutes. Some schools restrict bathroom use during the first or last 15 minutes of class, leaving limited time during a period and encouraging use during passing periods. Oakland High School applies different systems by academic pathway, including limited paper passes per class, with boys receiving fewer passes than girls. Other schools may have no clear policy at all.
#school-policies #student-restroom-access #digital-monitoring #health-and-safety #education-administration
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