School Policy Irritates Raleigh Students, Parents

A policy in Wake County Schools which offers students extra credit for not leaving the classroom to use the bathroom has some students and parents upset.

They think it is sending the wrong message.

At Westlake Middle School, kids get one bathroom pass per quarter. If you use it you lose out on extra credit.

Teachers would like to see students concentrate on class and use the bathroom in between classes. But some students do not think that four minutes between classes is enough time to do everything they need to do.

"You have to have time to go to your locker, to go to the bathroom, and you don't always have time to do that," says eighth grader Hayley Teater.

Teater's mother, Robin Boettcher, is one of three parents who have complained.

"You're risking humiliation from accidents by not allowing the kids to go to the rest room without pressure," says Boettcher.

Pressure is exactly what Kelly Richardson says the policy is putting on students who desperately need the extra credit for grade points per class per year for not going to the bathroom.

"I don't think it's fair because we need to go. It's not something we control, and it's not something we do as a leisure activity," Richardson says.

"I think there could be a better way of handling it so that people don't abuse the right to go to the bathroom," adds Teater.

Assistant Superintendent John Ringo says that teachers have used this policy to keep down classroom disruptions for years and there are currently no plans to change it.