Picture sitting in your worst class, at the end of the day, not being able to focus on a single word coming from the front of the classroom and finally deciding you can’t hold it anymore. You walk up to your teacher and ask to go to the bathroom. Now, this is where most teachers will look at you and say “Yep, go, but be quick.”

But if you’re an Algebra II student, instead your teacher will pick up the clipboard and look through the list of students until your name is found.  That’s followed by a disapproving shake of the head, and something along the lines of, “Well, Student X, it looks like you already went to the bathroom in class four weeks ago.”  You’ll say, “But I really have to go!”  Then the teacher willl smile a sinister smile, and say “Well, you can go but in turn you have to come in for a 15 minute detention.”

Now, you’re stuck in the dilemma of deciding between two things: negative bladder health or 900 long seconds of one-on-one time with the teacher.

This is the situation that every Algebra Two student is bound to find themselves in sometime this year as there is a new policy which gives students one “pass” to go to the bathroom each six weeks. If the student wants to go later, when they’ve already exhausted their one-time pass, they owe the teacher a 15 minute detention.

“I think it’s dumb. When you gotta go, you gotta go. Usually when someone asks, the teacher isn’t even lecturing. I don’t see why they don’t just let the people do their business,” junior Becky Cummings said.

Some parents even disagree with the policy.

“I disagree with this policy–if the kid has to use the restroom, let them take care of it. If they miss something important, that’s their responsibility to make sure they understand what they missed while they were gone,” Lovejoy parent Jackie Helsley said.

Honestly, a three-minute trip to the bathroom most likely won’t cause a student to fall behind in class. They should be able to take that responsibility to choose the appropriate time to go if they need to.

While this policy seems ludicrous to many students (and staff), the division does have some logic behind implementing it.

“We have seen many students miss valuable instruction because they get up and go to the bathroom constantly. In Algebra II, it gets much more difficult and every piece of instruction is very important, and we don’t want students just going to the bathroom because you need to go check a text message or something like that,” Algebra II teacher Amanda Douglas said.

“I am in agreement with the ideas that class time is important, and that passing periods provide adequate time for attending to personal needs,” associate principal Teresa Dodson said.

However, other staff don’t see the need for a policy so drastic.

“In the past I have had students who have almost made it a practice, it’s like ‘Okay, it’s 3:20, I have to go to the bathroom!’ and those I would just talk to individually and tell them that I wouldn’t allow that. So if you have that need to implement a policy like this, I understand that, but I’ve never had it before in any of my classes,” Bernadette McKinney, head of math department curriculum, said. “But each teacher has their own way of dealing with issues, and I agree that the loss of information that can come with a five or 10 minute extended trip can have a negative effect on the student.”