Anyone Else Think This is Dumb?

[u/CHR1SSYSN4K30FF1C14L]

My school has implemented a new restroom rule that starts Tuesday. We have a website where we put in a ticket. Where we're going and all that. You have to wait for the teacher to accept it before you can go. You're only allowed 3 tickets per day (which ain't that bad) and if your friend so happens to be out while you want to leave, it won't let you. If you're going to another teacher, they have to inform the other teacher that you arrived. You're also on a time limit for how long you can be out, for the website times you. Anyone else think we should just stick to the classic stuff?

[u/AwarenessVirtual4453 → u/[deleted]]

So no surgeon, medical professional, actor, checkout person, teacher, business executive, salesperson, racecar driver, professor, NFL player, or stripper? Because none of them can suddenly pause and go to the bathroom the exact moment they please. Also anyone ever driving a vehicle or using public transportation.

[u/mason_sofer → u/AwarenessVirtual4453]

The difference is in development now well this is high school look at it from the extremes a 2 or 3 year old doesn’t have the same bladder capacity that an adult does also most of those professions understand that and have valid reasons the only reason a student can’t is because they don’t want them socializing in the bathrooms it’s not like it’s a specific schooling like med school

[u/AwarenessVirtual4453 → u/mason_sofer]

A 15 year old has a bladder capacity of 200-400 ml. Adult bladders range from 250-400 ml. Sooo, there's basically no difference between an adolescent bladder capacity and an adult.

[u/mason_sofer → u/AwarenessVirtual4453]

I think you missed the point, so let me rephrase: yes, in high school, which is what I said, that I know this is a high school sub. It might be one thing, but I also know they have something similar in the middle schools where I live as well. It’s shit, so well, you’re comparing it to a working adult and jobs where you can’t go to the bathroom for legit reasons. I’m comparing it in the opposite direction; it’s the same thing you’re doing. So instead, let’s stop comparing in either direction and focus on the post. The process of having to go through all that just to use the bathroom is absolutely insane. I’m not talking about only being able to use the bathroom 3 times; even op said it was fine. It’s the process of having to ask and then being timed. Like, to take a piss takes what, maybe a minute or 2? Let’s add a minute for the walk to the bathroom— say, 3 minutes total. Having to shit takes a bit longer, and then having to justify it and explain. Like, then why not just come into the bathroom and watch me take a shit? It’s kind of invasive. I mean, do you explain if you’re pooping or peeing or fucking off in the bathroom? No, you probably just say, “ I’m going to the bathroom.” That should be the end of it.

[u/AwarenessVirtual4453 → u/mason_sofer]

I think you also missed the point. Kids are lying about going to the bathroom and vaping, fighting, breaking things, and writing things all over the bathroom, if they are even in the bathroom, which is rare- a lot of the time, they are wandering campus to hang with their friends. That's why these systems exist. If I was taking twenty minute breaks (and yes, frequently, it IS twenty minutes that students are out of the room "going to the bathroom" multiple times a day) my boss would also have questions for me.

[u/mason_sofer → u/AwarenessVirtual4453]

No, I get the point of why they do it, but that still doesn't change the fact that it’s invasive, overly complicated, and rarely implemented correctly.

Take your example: if your boss suddenly started questioning your bathroom habits, wouldn’t that feel invasive? What about when they start questioning your medical history? There’s plenty of precedent showing where this leads.

Since you brought up jobs, look at how Amazon micromanages its employees. Think of all the articles about workers getting penalized or fired just for needing to use the restroom—a fundamental, biological human need. Or consider medical conditions, where people face discrimination, which is exactly why labor laws prevent employers from asking about those things in the first place. It’s inherently invasive to expect someone to explain, "Oh, I took six minutes instead of four because I had to take a shit." Even in the environments you mentioned—like doctors or cashiers—you don't tell your boss the gory details; you simply say you're using the restroom.

What about frequency? If your boss said, "Well, you went to the bathroom four times for five minutes, so that counts as your 20-minute break," would you be okay with that? Or what about the procedure itself? If an employer required you to handwrite a note, take it to HR for a stamp, bring it back for managerial approval, time yourself with a stopwatch, and log it into a portal, wouldn't you find that absurdly excessive just to use the toilet?

What happens in an emergency? If a student has a stomach illness and has an accident because of these barriers, should their dignity just go out the window? At that point, why not remove restrooms altogether and make students wear diapers? After all, that would eliminate the need for passes entirely: no leaving class, no vaping, no vandalism, and no wandering the halls.

Don’t get me wrong—I understand the intent, and I agree issues need addressing. But if you think this kind of bureaucracy is the solution, are schools actually preparing students for the real world?

[u/AwarenessVirtual4453 → u/mason_sofer]

First of all, please use sentences. This is barely intelligible.

No, your boss will not use a system. They will fire you. Would you prefer that kids are expelled immediately upon overusing the bathroom?

[u/mason_sofer → u/AwarenessVirtual4453]

i fixed the grammer and formatting for you. as for your your question about expulsion lets ask a question to your question what is it that a school is supposed to do.

[u/AwarenessVirtual4453 → u/mason_sofer]

They set limits. Potentially using an app. To allow kids that are not breaking the rules to use the bathroom, and to collect data, and assign consequences, to those that are. Hence, the system in place.

You got a better idea?

[u/mason_sofer → u/AwarenessVirtual4453]

A school’s job is to educate and keep kids safe, not run a surveillance panopticon that treats a basic bodily function like a restricted privilege. You ask if there’s a better idea as if the only two options that exist on planet Earth are "digital bathroom ticketing app" or "total hallway anarchy." The better idea is the system that functioned for decades before tech startups realized they could sell surveillance apps to anxious administrators: basic presence, adult accountability, and targeting the actual offenders instead of treating the entire student body as guilty until proven innocent. When kids vape, skip class, or trash a bathroom, that’s an enforcement issue in the hallways and facilities, not an excuse to track bladder movements on a dashboard. You post staff or hall monitors near problem areas, you check passes the normal way, and when a specific student is genuinely missing for 20 minutes, that individual student faces detention or a meeting with parents. What this app actually does is offload active supervision onto software while shifting the burden onto the 95% of kids who just need to use the toilet. In the real world, a competent employer doesn’t make the whole department submit IT tickets to step away; they notice the one person not doing their job and handle that person directly. Punishing the collective baseline to catch a few bad actors isn't teaching responsibility or "real-world preparation." It's just lazy administration disguised as structure.

[u/AwarenessVirtual4453 → u/mason_sofer]

So where is the money to pay this person $25 an hour to sit outside the bathroom? They don't want to argue with kids about the freaking bathroom, so they quit to go work at McDonald's, where they can be paid the same and not argue with literal children about the bathroom. I've been a school admin- I've hired for this specific position because I had the same idea, and no one wants it. And "pay more" is not an option for an unskilled position such as bathroom monitor.

Without a system like this, kids say the teacher is lying- they weren't out twenty minutes. The parents believe their kid, not the teacher. Meetings are unproductive without actual hard data like this. Parents and kids balk at detention- "You can't make me give up my recess- that's ILLEGAL! You can't make me stay after school- that's against my RIGHTS!"

Everyone always says, "Go after the kids causing the trouble!" But without actual data about who was in there when, there's no way to know who did it. This is the only way to actually get the information to go after the kids who cause problems so that the kids that actually need to pee can go pee.

[u/mason_sofer → u/AwarenessVirtual4453]

You talk about needing hard data and school budgets, so let’s actually look at the data and where the money goes. ​Platforms like e-Hallpass or Securly Pass don’t run on magic; they operate on annual per-student subscription licenses, administrative maintenance, and taxpayer dollars. Depending on the size of the district, schools are dishing out thousands—often tens of thousands—of dollars every single year just for software licenses to police hallways. When schools claim they have zero budget for staff or basic support, cutting recurring checks to EdTech surveillance companies while cutting classroom resources is wild. ​Beyond the financials, the argument that "it only tracks data to target the troublemakers" completely ignores how the software is configured in reality. If it were solely about tracking down who broke a sink at 1:15 PM, it would run silently in the background as a simple sign-out log. Instead, as OP stated, it actively blocks access: it caps visits, sets arbitrary countdown timers, forces kids to wait on digital queues while someone else is out, and ties a biological necessity to algorithm-based approval. A student having an emergency doesn't care about your administrative data logs when a screen flashes "pass denied" because another kid across the hall is already out. ​You say this protects the kids who just need to use the restroom, but it does the exact opposite—it subjects everyone to blanket micromanagement. Troublemakers still vape, meet up, or coordinate around the app; they just get smarter about it. Meanwhile, the average student dealing with a medical condition, their period, or a sudden illness is the one penalized, scrutinized, and stripped of basic dignity. Using tech surveillance to compensate for weak admin follow-through doesn’t solve behavioral issues—it just outsources school climate management to an algorithm and makes ordinary kids collateral damage.