A small window into American education in 2012
January 20, 2012
"Brooklyn elementary school restricting bathroom use".
It’s a no-pissing contest.
Parents at a Brooklyn elementary school are hopping mad after staffers set bladder-bursting limits on fifth-graders’ potty privileges — even going so far as to offer prizes to students who go to the can the least.
With the apparent OK of her principal, PS 90 teacher Stephanie Warner began restricting kids earlier this month to just three toilet trips per week in an attempt to reduce classroom disruptions.
The teacher set three, short “windows of opportunity” when kids could take leave for the loo and distributed strips that resemble award ribbons reading “This coupon entitles [student name] to bathroom.”
“She gave us these vouchers and told us we only had three per week — and if we crumbled, broke or lost one, we’d never get them back,” said 10-year-old Jordan Leon. “She told us that we kept going to the bathroom a lot and we weren’t allowed to.”