Teacher's Reward Program Charges Second-Graders for Bathroom Breaks

Teacher's Reward Program Charges Second-Graders for Bathroom Breaks

www.nbcdfw.com

The mother of a 7-year-old Irving elementary school student says her son wet his pants in class after his teacher refused to let him use the restroom Thursday afternoon.
"I was absolutely appalled," Sonja Cross said. "I could not believe it."
The first-year teacher at J.O. Davis Elementary awards her students with "Boyd Bucks" for good behavior. Going to the bathroom outside of the three scheduled breaks costs two Boyd Bucks per trip.

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Are you kidding me? The school has told the teacher to stop charging kids to go to the bathroom, but plans no disciplinary action. This kid has been humiliated in front of his friends and classmates. She needs an unpaid suspension and should be forced to make a public apology. Maybe make her wear urine soaked clothing for an entire school day? This is why I absolutely despise teachers unions. She needs to be punished, but her union will protect her. Totally disgusting.

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Many little boys and even some little girls do not have complete control of their bladders yet at that age. This teacher needs a lesson in children's growth rates. Her ignorance is disgusting. Totally inappropriate classroom rules.

reply to post by MsAphrodite


I absolutely agree. If they won't fire her, she should at least be suspended without pay.

thats certainly a bizarre scheme, I feel sad for the 'poor' kid since that was absolutely avoidable by just letting him go.

very weird teacher and no punishment from the principle, is even weirder.

Life sure has changed. I remember in 3rd grade my teacher made a similar edict. Why? Because there was a steady line of student after student "needing to go" so much that it disrupted the classroom. even though there were breaks every hour or so. Teacher finally said if you disrupt the class you will stay after.

One day I REALLY had to go. I was willing to take the hit. I came back to class and quietly asked the teacher, "Do I have to stay after?" and she said, "No." Why? Because she knew I wasn't faking it.

Everyone is so worried this poor person is 'humiliated" in class. It will forever disturb his fragile psyche.

You want to know humiliation? How about the girl who started her period in sixth grade and had blood all over her dress and had to be taken home by themale teacher. Now THAT'S humiliating!

Didn't stop her from being a cheer leader in high school

reply to post by Biigs


The "no punishment" thing isn't weird at all imo. It is to be expected with teacher's unions. No matter what, they protect the teacher from reprisal, whether just or not.

Originally posted by schuyler

You want to know humiliation? How about the girl who started her period in sixth grade and had blood all over her dress and had to be taken home by themale teacher. Now THAT'S humiliating!

While true, it was not caused by the teacher. That was just biology kicking in at the wrong time. This was something else, and that teacher needs to be punished.

First thing I said to myself with thread title was what happens when you piss yourself?

Dumb idea

Before we yanked our now grown kids out and home schooled them we told them if you really need to go you just get up and go even if the teacher tells you not to and we will deal with the teacher. We also told the school that was our policy and we never had any big problems with it that I recall. Still schools don;t teach kids how to think on thier own anymore they just teach them what to think. Home schooling is so much easier then people think. We never regretted pulling them and discovered we could do everything in 2-3 hours and wondered what the heck they were doing in school for 5-7 hours.. When my daughter got into college after a week she said Dad the kids in there don't know anything...

It is angering that a teacher is implying to her students that relieving themselves is a privilege rather than a physical requirement. It sounds abusive. She needs to be taught to prioritize her "reward" system.

How about a different perspective?

I have a similar rule in my classroom. Why? Because there are three or four students who would go to the bathroom every twenty minutes just to get out of class. Its a given with children.

I also know which kids would never try such a thing...and when one of them comes to me and says its an emergency, they get a free pass. They don't abuse it, either.

After ten years of teaching, you develop a sense for who really needs to go and who's faking. Usually, the kid clutching himself and dancing really needs to go.

With the increased demands of standardized testing, teaching time is safeguarded at all costs. This teacher needs to listen to her students, but since she's a first year teacher, this is probably something her mentor suggested she try to cut down on classroom disruptions. Sometimes, mistakes are made.

I had a bathroom accident when I was in second grade; and you know what? Didn't destroy my self esteem...

Don't get me wrong, what happened is sad. But it was a mistake, hopefully she learned from it, and life goes on.

I heard about that in the school here through the grandchildren. If they go to the bathroom too many times it effects their grade. That is applied to the citizenship or behavioral grade I think.

Watch this and you get an idea of what the educational system really is:

Originally posted by hawkiye
Before we yanked our now grown kids out and home schooled them we told them if you really need to go you just get up and go even if the teacher tells you not to and we will deal with the teacher. We also told the school that was our policy and we never had any big problems with it that I recall. Still schools don;t teach kids how to think on thier own anymore they just teach them what to think. Home schooling is so much easier then people think. We never regretted pulling them and discovered we could do everything in 2-3 hours and wondered what the heck they were doing in school for 5-7 hours.. When my daughter got into college after a week she said Dad the kids in there don't know anything...

Sorry, OP, this is kinda off topic, but I wanted to address this reply.

Hawiye,

The reason we need 7 hours in school to teach what you could in 3 has to do with the ability levels and number of students in the room. For example, I have two ESL students who speak limited English. I have to spend extra time with them because of the language issue. Then, I have to separate my students into small groups (based on understanding of topic) and work with them on their level.

The kids who are home-schooled get one or two on one attention; you work on the child's level constantly, and you control the information presented. Its a heck of a more effective system. Which is why I think homeschooling is a great choice for most people (there are some who shouldn't do it, but thats a different story).

reply to post by smyleegrl


I agree, the teacher needs to be able to assess this, not a defined set of rules.

What do the kids get to spend their good behavior Boyd Bucks on?

I mean, if they got rewarded with something at the end of the week rather than losing them, something like "stick to no more than 3 breaks a day and you get to go home 30 mins early on friday" they are all starring out the window on a friday anyway and not paying attention, starring out the window and ticking the minutes down to the bell.

Okay not the best suggestion, but certainly better than having kids pee themselves due to a lack of previous good behavior

If the teacher did it on purpose to make the kid pee himself, to show the other kids 'play by my rules or end up like him' isnt that terrorism?

If a kid is abusing the bathroom system I don't see why the first thing to do would even be limiting their time. Instead they should be allowed to go as much as they want but their absence be marked. If they have 3-5 trips a day it should only be 30 mins max missed. If they go beyond that, they can make it up after school, or if their grades and reports are good/finished, who cares?

reply to post by Biigs


Usually teachers who have a payment system like this have a prize book "store" the kids use their money to buy.

I've done this, and it works with some classes. Other classes, not so much. Its different year to year.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Stemming the tide of select children from abusing a restroom break I believe is an acceptable practice. What I do not ascribe to is having to "earn" the ability to do so. In this case, this teacher put the child in question into a position of choosing to keep his "boyd bucks" -- a bit more on this later -- or use them; or worse yet, afraid to even ask the teacher if they have none.

Placing them into that situation is just beyond convoluted. I teach my boys that if they have to go and the teacher says no, I gave them permission to go. I will deal with the administrators. Of course the flip-side is I told them if they become disruptive, they are on their own.

Now to the "boyd bucks". Seems the teacher had an inflated sense of self-worth by naming the scheme after herself. As if she were the benevolent dictator that passed out favor, so long as you do as she asked.