This is a guest post excerpt from Energy Convertors. To read the entire post, please click here.
By: Qianru Lin, EC Oakland Fellow-Cohort 6
At my school, it’s challenging to gain access to the bathroom. When we use the bathroom is something many of us take for granted in our day-to-day lives. Not high school students. Bathroom restrictions are very common for us.
Only one student per class is allowed to leave for the bathroom or office at a time at my school. This often means waiting for classmates who take long bathroom breaks — sometimes up to 20 minutes.
Many students use the bathroom as an excuse to spend time outside of class or meet with their friends or use their phones. This can cause schools to propose stricter rules and more severe punishment, such as one bathroom break per student, per week.