When senior Rebecca Abramov asked her teacher to go to the bathroom in the middle of class, her teacher quickly denied the bathroom pass due to her lack of preparation for class. Abramov decided to take matters into her own hands, as she felt her teacher’s response denied her rights.
“I started walking out of class and my teacher ran in front of me and stood in front of the door,” Abramov recalled. “She said ‘No you’re not going anywhere’ and I said ‘Ok but I have to use the bathroom’ and so she agreed to let me go if I left my phone in the class, but as soon as I left without my phone all I heard was her walking behind me and locking the door. I knocked on the door and one of my friends saw me from the window and she opened it for me but the teacher didn’t open the door for me.”
This is one of the cases reported to FLHS News as some teachers have been denying students’ requests to go to the bathroom during class time and are not adhering to the bathroom policies set by the Chancellor’s Regulations. The Chancellor’s Regulations regarding bathroom use highlights how it is a violation when any DOE employee creates a “hostile environment for a student by conduct.” These conducts can include denying access to the restrooms, as it is within students’ rights to use the bathroom.
“The bathroom is to be used when you need to go to the bathroom,” principal Dr. Marmor stated when asked to define the official bathroom policy. “The bathroom is generally restricted outside of emergencies for the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes of class. It’s a city-wide thing. You should have a pass that your teacher gives you when you’re going. You should use the bathroom and come right back, without wandering the building.”
When inquiring with Dr. Marmor about whether or not there are any circumstances where a teacher is allowed to restrict the bathroom pass, he stated that “the school under no circumstances has told them that they can.”
“If the accusation is that there are teachers in the building inappropriately restricting the bathroom pass, then I have nothing else to add other than that they cannot do that,” Dr. Marmor added.
However, students here at FLHS have corroborated and shared their experiences with being denied access to the bathroom.
“I asked [the teacher] for the bathroom and she said no [after the ten minutes at the start of class],” sophomore Daniella Mullakandarov said. “I asked why and she explained that it was because I came late.”
When FLHS News went to poll teachers in multiple departments, asking what they knew about the bathroom policy, most did not correctly state the official bathroom policy. Only two out of the 20 teachers polled answered correctly and stated how under no circumstances can the pass be denied. The other 18 teachers believed that they had the right to refuse the pass. The most common answer amongst the teachers polled was that they could deny a bathroom pass during class if a student was overusing or abusing the pass. Some teachers have even developed their own bathroom regulations, which generally restrict students’ access to the restroom over the course of the semester.
“My teacher has a policy where you can only use the bathroom three times each semester,” senior Suzan Kumas said. “After that, you can’t use the bathroom, which I think is unfair because there’s a lot of time in between each semester and you only get three passes. What if it’s an emergency?”
Kumas added on, explaining her own experiences with her teacher’s policy.
“When I tried going to the bathroom when it was an emergency, my teacher said there was a line and I couldn’t go. I just thought, what am I supposed to do then?” Kumas elaborated. “My teacher denied another student permission to use the bathroom because the teacher claimed that he used his three bathroom passes for the semester. I think this is ridiculous.”
Another bathroom policy in FLHS that many students contest is the ten-minute policy. The ten-minute rule is when the school staff locks the bathrooms ten minutes before the period ends, and ten minutes after the next period begins. The overall time equates to 20 minutes without being able to go to the bathroom.
“I think that 10 minutes is way too much,” junior Thea Boumakis said. “I would rather it be like five [minutes] because if I can’t use the bathroom in one class I have to wait ten minutes after the period starts and it’s way too much time.”
Given there is only a specific time window where students can go to the bathroom, it can cause long lines to form which delays students from getting to the restroom.
“I might ask at the beginning or the end of the class and they’ll say no because of the ten-minute rule,” senior Evangelia Markoulis said. “There may be too many kids in line ahead of me so they don’t allow me to go, which is kind of annoying because even if there are other kids out, I still need to go to the bathroom,”
Another issue is if students leave things in the bathroom by accident. They would have to wait an additional 10 minutes before having the chance to retrieve their things. By then, belongings could get damaged or stolen.
“I remember this one time I lost my airpods in the bathroom and they didn’t let me in or open the door for me,” Mullakandarov said.
When asked about the 10-minute policy, Dr. Marmor revealed that the school did not create this policy as it was enforced citywide.
“I don’t know if it is policy or practice or guideline but it is something that has been a guideline and regulation for a while. I know it’s not something we made up.” Dr. Marmor said.
Dr. Marmor explained the school’s safety concerns if the bathrooms were open during passing periods when about 4,000 students are moving around without proper supervision.
“If we had the bathrooms wide open during passing periods when 4,000 kids are moving past those bathrooms, it can very easily become a dangerous situation when many kids flood into the bathroom and we will have no control over what happens in there,” said Dr. Marmor
Overall Dr. Marmor made it clear that if students had complaints about teachers and staff, he urges students to come to him directly and if that is not possible there are other options on where to go.
“You could make a complaint in many different ways,” Dr. Marmor concluded. “You can go to your guidance counselor, the dean’s office, any assistant principal, or you could come to the main office and say you want to talk to me and make a complaint. But, any of those other ways would work. Theoretically, you could tell any adult but know my door is always open, anyone is always welcome to come to us and tell us these things directly.”
