By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The mother of a third grade girl attending Mill Plain Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington is demanding changes in a school room program where students are required to pay to use the bathroom. The program was to be a lesson in money management where students received and worked for Monopoly Money to buy items in the classroom but the teacher required a payment of M$50.00 in order to use the bathroom.
Jasmine Al-Ayadhi told reporters her nine year old daughter, Reem, did not want to pay to use the bathroom and ultimately had an accident, causing her both discomfort and having to endure teasing by other children. In agreeing with the need to teach children the value of money Jasmine said, “Work for your money, to earn it, to buy like a little toy or a little squirt gun or a little ball. When it comes to a bathroom issue, when a child has to pay money to use the bathroom – that’s wrong. It’s inhumane. That’s a health issue.”
Reem said the students in her class earn money by doing things, such as good deeds, being nice, and finishing school work. She said she uses the money to buy treats like popcorn and pizza.
She also said each student in her class has to pay their teacher M$50 dollars in pretend money to go to the bathroom.
On Thursday, Reem was down to her last M$50. She also had to go to the bathroom. She wanted to buy popcorn, like her friends were doing. She said she wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom because she didn’t want to pay. She then had an embarrassing accident.
“When it comes to using the bathroom, having to hold her pee, and if she wants to use the bathroom, you make a choice,” Jasmine said. “OK, if you want to use the bathroom it’s going to cost you M$50, but then you don’t have money to buy popcorn. What do you think a child’s going to do?”
The school gave Reem a change of clothes, a pair of royal blue boy’s basketball shorts. Reem said the other kids made fun of her for having an accident, and then for having to wear boys clothes.
“It didn’t feel so well because I had to wear boy pants and I did get teased,” Reem said.
Jasmine said she talked to the principal on Thursday, who promised to follow up about the issue on Friday. As of Friday night, Jasmine said she hadn’t heard back.
“This is a school,” Jasmine said. “This isn’t a jail. This isn’t a prison. We send our kids to school to learn and to get a good education.”
The school’s spokeswoman released a statement.
“We were made aware of the situation Friday evening. We will investigate as soon as possible Monday morning. We work hard to ensure the health and safety of every child and will make sure we do not have any classroom rule that prevents that.”
A similar incident occurred in Lebanon, Oregon and was reported by news station KATU of Portland, Oregon and the school principal dropped the payment requirement after the story aired.
A pediatrician was consulted and provided an opinion of this based upon his experience. Dr. Bruce Birk is a Portland pediatrician. He says that there’s consensus in the medical community on this issue.
“It would be chaos in a classroom for teachers not to have a system,” says Birk. “Holding in the classroom in between well-established potty breaks has not been shown in any sense of the word to be harmful to kids.”
Yet the message this might be teaching children is something that some parents are going to have much objection to. But not only the parents have concerns, the incident at Mill Plain Elementary could have been interpreted as close to violating state law, at least in the sprit of the law as noted by the state legislature.
In 1977, when bathrooms requiring payment were more common, the legislature enacted a law in the state’s Public Health and Safety code to address the issue of those needing to use restrooms and facility owners demanding payment for their use. The law reads:
RCW 70.54.160
Public restrooms — Pay facilities — Penalty.(1) Every establishment which maintains restrooms for use by the public shall not discriminate in charges required between facilities used by men and facilities used by women.
(2) When coin lock controls are used, the controls shall be so allocated as to allow for a proportionate equality of free toilet units available to women as compared with those units available to men, and at least one-half of the units in any restroom shall be free of charge. As used in this section, toilet units are defined as constituting commodes and urinals.
(3) In situations involving coin locks placed on restroom entry doors, admission keys shall be readily provided without charge when requested, and notice as to the availability of the keys shall be posted on the restroom entry door.
(4) Any owner, agent, manager, or other person charged with the responsibility of the operation of an establishment who operates such establishment in violation of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.
While many could see this as making a mountain out of a mole hill, one has to ask what kind of lesson a policy requiring payment by nine year old students to use a bathroom teaches children.
By Darren Smith
Sources:
KATU
Revised Code of Washington
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Paul,
Thank you for making the issue at hand more understandable. Your following comment really presents the situation, and the excellent concept that you highlighted should be taught much before the third-grade. If this was done, then situations like this would not occur:
“The student paid an ‘opportunity cost’ when she decided on the popcorn over the bathroom. This is something we all do when making purchase, unless we have unlimited amounts of money. I can either use the money to buy this or I can use the money to buy that. Whatever I did not buy is known as an opportunity cost.”
Nick:
True, if I was her parent it would have been a teachable moment about choices and consequences. The mind is still developing at that stage, and clearly she didn’t realize that would happen, nor did she have the presence of mind to speak up when disaster loomed.
I think it is an excellent idea for schools to teach kids about using money, saving, credit, debt, and how interest works. And that choices have consequences as well.
I don’t know how they work out potty breaks at elementary schools or if they have a teachers aid to go with kids to the bathroom. But I don’t think it was a good example to have kids pay Monopoly money to go the bathroom. It’s not indicative of the real world, and having kids hold it too long just causes accidents and embarrassment. She could have picked much better real life examples on how to teach choice and consequences in spending. Because the obvious consequence of not having enough money to use the bathroom was an accident.
What I’m not clear about is was the money to use the bathroom during a potty break? If a kid ran out of money, was he stuck until after school? Or just until the next break? Because that also makes a difference.
Karen – I think, and think is the operative word here, that the purpose of the exercise was to show the difference between wants and needs. Wants are not a problem at that age, but needs are a little harder to find in the classroom. In this case, some students ‘need’ to go to the bathroom. Some can hold it until recess. This girl had a desperate need, but chose to go with the ‘want’ of the popcorn instead. I am not sure if her plan was to hope to hold out until recess or lunch, but regardless, she did not make it.
Some have said, well borrow from somebody else. I am not sure that borrowing token money was part of the economy yet, so I am not sure if that came into play or not. Not sure about interest or anything else. Without the teacher’s lesson plan it is hard to be sure exactly what she was trying to do.
However, I do know that 3rd grade is about the time most schools start teaching students about money and a consumer economy. Some schools get very complex with students having bank accounts, setting up their own bank, buying goods, etc. It all depends on the teacher, the time available and the materials at hand and of course, the mandated curriculum.
Karen – because of the Buckley amendment, the school cannot disclose the student’s name or identity, except for sporting events, awards, etc.
Paul,
Especially for a third-grader. Buck up, yes?
Paul,
“Malo – at worst this is the sort of thing that might go on for a month or 6 weeks.”
Thank you for the clarification. Six weeks of marching isn’t bad.
Simms – oh my gosh, you’re right. The mom did use her kid’s real name. They usually withhold that for privacy reasons. The kids in the school will always remember she had an accident at school, but now it’s even more widespread.
Paul,
“Keebler – Nick is right that you are not making substantive comments on this thread.”
Indeed you are not, Keebler. Nick has made many substantial comments. Here are a few:
“I would pay up and drain it!”
“Then borrow money from a buddy for the popcorn.”
“Paul, We both show all commenters [sic] the respect of reading their comments and replying.”
“Paul, But try getting in a pay bathroom w/ Monopoly money.”
“Paul, Great to have you back. Lot’s of flawed thinking going on here this afternoon.”
Malo – the month or six weeks would be for the token economy.
Honestly, what has happened to common sense in the education system?
Paul,
“the students were marched to the bathroom, as a group, on break to go.”
This is better, yes. It teaches group behavior and marching. Can’t go wrong there!
Malo – it was a back-to-basics public school and highly in demand by parents. They were the most polite students I ever taught. 🙂
Paul,
” . . . sadly we do not have her entire economy here to deal with.”
So true. Think of the interest to be made from millions of potty breaks; trading the token currency (is this the correct understanding?) of third-graders for more fungible goods.
Malo – at worst this is the sort of thing that might go on for a month or 6 weeks. So, millions of potty breaks would mean the kids would have to be living in the potty.
Paul,
“This is a token economy, it is often used in the classroom and elsewhere to teach children about money. Some parents use it in their homes to award token money to be used later for goodies the child can buy.”
Thanks for the clarifications. I thought the argument was that this was a consumer economy.
Ah, yes. Award; future; goodies. I understand now.
Keebler – went to a movie and lunch at a new Indian restaurant. Both were good. However, you still haven’t added anything of substance to the discussion.
feynman – are you going to send that cash or money order? I would like the $1000 by Tuesday. A real man always pays his gambling debts.
Who would take a job in a school that allowed teachers to deny any bathroom breaks all semester, who had a teacher that made kids carry a toilet seat as a pass, who had a teacher who allowed 3 bathroom breaks a semester?
That school sounds like it is a training school for guards for Gitmo.
$1000 it wasn’t a public school.
You might try walking it will do wonders for a person your age. You keep making incoherent statements but that’s to be expected from you. Relax, serenity now, peace.
Malo – a token economy is a method of using tokens to build an economy, a consumer economy and a token economy are not mutually exclusive.
keebler – old buddy, you continue your winning streak. How good of you to make my point.
Paul,
There was one teacher at my school who kept two laminated bathroom passes in his classroom–one for boys and one for girls. I didn’t think that was a good idea. I felt those passes were breeding grounds for germs. That said, he was an excellent teacher. My daughter had him in third grade.
Elaine – there is some thought that we are getting too sanitary thus making us susceptible to disease. Handling those hall pass probably helped them build antibodies against some bug down the road.
Paul S said:
f I have this right, winning at baseball is sign of bullying, winning the science fair is a sign of bullying, being selected for the lead in the school play is a sign of bullying? Where do you get this stuff?
___________________
You do not have it right.
Nick said we were producing a generation of kids who weren’t tough enough, who didn’t learn to take some hard knocks, that kids were coddled and experienced “no competition” (his ‘first cause’)
I disagreed. I said:
‘There is no end of competition for school children. Stop making things up. We could start with something familiar – kids playing baseball. Are all the games played to a tie? Do all kids get straight As? Do all kids win the Science Fair? Do all kids win the spelling bee? Do both candidates get to be class president? Do all the kids get to be team captain? Do all the kids get to play the lead in the school play – editor of the school paper?’
BTW, lest you misunderstand again (maybe reading comments from the bottom up presents you with a bit of a problem), all of my examples are what I consider appropriate areas of competition.
Paul S, do you now understand? Nick says we are denying kids competition. I offered numerous examples of exactly how kids today are still experiencing lots of competition.
Keebler – Nick is right that you are not making substantive comments on this thread. Since I have had the chance to follow the thread since I left several hours ago, you really have added nothing of value.
part of me likes the idea of this but part of me doesnt. I get the idea of bathroom as life necessity but these are young children and I think this too abstract an idea/concept for them to understand.
I think it would be better for older children but I would offer that little girl a job when she gets out of college, anyone willing to piss themselves for something they want, I want that person on my team.
Byron – I am not sure peeing her pants was part of her business model. 😉