The Restroom Laws Movement

So far, over the past month, I have emailed 450 out of 500 school districts (ten in each state), asking them if they provide any regulations for teachers when they determine the appropriate time to grant a student permission to use the restroom. To date, 87 have replied with basically the same answer: there are no written policies, only an expectation for the teachers to apply “common sense” and use “best judgement.”

36 districts have replied asking me to more thoroughly identify myself before they will answer my question, and about another 50 emails bounced back because the email address on the district’s web site turned out to be invalid. I have yet to contact the last 50 districts on my list, and to receive responses from all the others.

If you’re confused, please read the previous post.

I have sent emails to the State Department of Education located each of the 50 US states, along with Washing D.C., American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. I asked them all the same question:

Does the State Department of Education provide any regulations regarding student access to toilet facilities in the compulsory school system? If so, where can I find the specific language of those regulations? In particular, I would like to know how the teachers are being regulated when they determine the appropriate time to grant a student permission to use the toilet. If the State Department of Education does not provide such regulations, who does?

So far I’ve gotten replies from 18 states, and they all say the same thing: Local school districts take care of this matter.

I look forward to replies from the rest of the departments, but honestly I doubt any of them will say anything different. We’ll see.

I can understand leaving a lot of things up to local districts because every community has unique needs. What bothers me deeply about this is that restroom access is a fundamental human rights issue, not an issue specific to local areas. The federal government and state governments have done much to stop racial, sexual, and other forms of discrimination, but little is being done for anyone regarding the right to relieve bodily wastes, except OSHA’s regulations which protect employees. It’s time people wake up to the fact human waste is avoidable, and we need to face the issue head on.

My next step will be to contact local school districts in several states to inquire about their policies or lack thereof. If you want to help, please contact me to let me know. My email address is brandon [at] restroomlawsmovement [dot] com

Alternatively you can click here to use the contact form.

So I’ve decided to put together a presentation about a major discrepancy in the United States Federal government. It turns out that OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), a division of DOL (Department of Labor) places regulations on most employers to ensure that people in the workplace — including teachers at public schools — will not suffer the adverse health effects that can result if toilets are not available. DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services), however, does not provide any similar regulation for the students who attend these public schools, as well as transit passengers, and people in other public places.

Quoted from the about page at the DHHS website, “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.” Either DHHS is lying through their teeth, or they are not adhering to their own stated responsibilities to the American public. The restroom regulations that OSHA places on employers are supported by research published by the National Institutes of Health, which is an agency of DHHS. Just to spell it out, DHHS is ignoring their own research that would help them comply with their own mandate to “protect the health of all Americans… especially for those who are least able to help themselves.” Compulsory students — most of whom are under age 18 and lack a lot of legal control over their own lives — are some of those people least able to help themselves.

In the coming weeks, I will be putting together a presentation that will go into much more detail about this discrepancy in the United States Federal government, discuss who this problem affects and how, and explain how we can tie this gap shut. Stay tuned, you won’t want to miss this!

While you wait, check out the memorandum compiled for OSHA (available at their website) to explain their position on their requirement for employers to provide their employees with toilet facilities. It’s a relatively quick read, and you’ll likely be surprised at just how important OSHA understands it is for people to have adequate access to toilet facilities.

On August 14th we will have a booth for the Restroom Laws Movement at the Pride Day Festival in Eugene, Oregon, at Alton Baker Park. The event runs from 12-7PM. We will be handing out copies of the open letter, and chatting with folks about the movement. You can find the booth near the beer garden. Click here to see a map at the Eugene Pride web site. (they call it a Vendors Map, though there are people including myself who are not selling anything) See you there!

Cognitive dissonance is commonly defined as an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. That uncomfortable feeling has been used throughout history to control people. The requirement for students to ask permission to use the restroom at a school in the compulsory education system is full of contradictions.

Compulsory education means education required by law. The vast majority of students who participate in the compulsory education system are given little or no options regarding who will educate them. Most end up getting sent to schools where they are told by authority figures to do as told or else receive punishment which is likely to cause more punishment at home. Students are trained through fear tactics to put the well-being of their minds and bodies aside for the sake of the authority figure’s ability to maintain order. As useful as that ability can be in situations where you truly want to follow the authority figure because you chose to (job, military, etc.) or you need to (emergency), it simply has no place in an education environment where students are forced to attend and be held under rules.

Contradiction #1

Students are asking permission to do unquestionably necessary, unavoidable tasks shared by all humans, yet compulsory schooling is not voluntary.

Contradiction #2

In front of their peers, students ask permission to perform certain actions and interact with certain parts of their bodies that their culture often considers embarrassing and joke-worthy to the point of torment.

Contradiction #3

At some schools, and/or in some classrooms, students are always given permission when they ask for it, but to ask for permission presumes that it could be denied. Read the rest of this entry →

The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration provides the necessary regulations to ensure that people in the work place will not suffer the adverse health effects that can result if toilets are not available(1) when needed. The agency mandated to protect the public’s health outside of the work place, the Department of Health and Human Services, provides no similar regulation or even guidance. [quoted from the Federal Public Restroom Requirements Initiative]

I made some changes to the Restroom Laws open letter today. It’s a little shorter and better organized. Check it out!

We have a compulsory education system in the United States of America, which means that you are required by law to be educated within a specified range of standards. If you cannot receive an approved education at home, then you are sent to a school. If you are required to ask to use the restroom at school, then by default the law is requiring you to do so because you are required to attend.

What is it that makes you required to do any of this? These requirements are being imposed on you, meaning that a system depends on you to do certain things in order for it to accomplish its goals. Let’s get something straight here:  Just because you are “required” to do something doesn’t automatically mean that you actually need to do it.

But isn’t asking permission to use the restroom necessary to maintain order in the classroom? No. Even if you always receive permission when you ask for it, the fact that you are asking for it presumes that you could be denied it. If you need to use the restroom, all you have to do to help maintain order is inform the teacher of where you’re going.

I’m interested in starting a parent-group network to connect parents to each other and lend each other support in the Restroom Laws Movement. Parents are extremely vital to the movement. Many students, mostly in elementary and middle school, do not know how to advocate for themselves and seriously need adults who can back them up. If parents band together to bring an end to unneeded permission that teaches students to not question anything they are taught, the movement is much more likely to succeed because when the choice has to be made by students, the words of parents are far more powerful than the words of any other authority figure. Please contact me if your are interested in the parent-group network for the Restroom Laws Movement.