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.

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.

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.

We set up a booth for the Restroom Laws Movement at the Eugene Pride Festival on August 14th, and it sure was a blast! There was a low attendance of festival-goers this year, but we got to meet lots of really great people and spread the message about the Movement. We handed out copies of the ‘Restroom Laws’ letter, and free Hall Passes that only the students can sign, proclaiming their choice to use the restroom when they need.

Out of about a hundred people we spoke to, only three of them, none of whom have been a compulsory student for probably 50 years, were in disagreement with the Movement. I had a conversation with one of them who claimed that the few people who would abuse the system are justification enough for enforcing such rules on students as asking permission to use the restroom. If you ask me, I think it sounds like “guilty until proven innocent,” and, frankly, that practice is solidly against the ideal of liberty and justice for all.

We generally received great thanks for starting the Movement, many words of support, and questions about if there was some kind of petition or declaration to sign (I will be posting a declaration on the website later this week). While we didn’t have a declaration to sign there, we did collect 19 newsletter sign-ups!

We spoke to a social worker who works in schools directly with children, and he expressed that he would like to help as an advocate in the Movement.

Later, we caught the attention of Joshua Keim, a renowned Eugene restaurateur, and founder of 1WorldCurrency.Net. Mr. Keim, amidst hosting the beer garden he set up at the festival, took the time to grab a copy of the ‘Restroom Laws’ letter, and after reading it he returned to our booth and requested an extra copy of the letter, stating that he would like to place it on his bulletin board at his 1WorldCurrency.Net booth he will be taking to Burning Man 2010, in Nevada’s Black Rock Dessert (August 30th through September 6th, 2010).

For quite a while, we dialogued with a person who works in the prison system, and she said that there is a school-to-prison pipeline. She elaborated on that, telling us that many public schools treat the students with so little trust that it trains them to act like they are in prison, and she has noticed a strong correlation between the students acting like they’re in prison, and eventually acting out in ways that land them in prison. She said that when the students are automatically treated as though they cannot be trusted, they reflect that attitude because that is essentially what they are being taught to do.

We also talked to a handful of parents and they took copies of the ‘Restroom Laws’ letter to bring home and share with their children attending elementary school. I got to speak directly to the child of one of these parents, a seven-year-old boy, who, despite my using too many words, after a little thinking was able to wrap his head around the whole idea and was in full support. The boy wanted me to know that if a teacher were to come to the booth and realize what it’s all about, the results were likely to be greatly in the Movement’s favor.

A kinesthesiologist told us that in hypnosis sessions with her adult patients, most of them dredge up memories of fear surrounding the requirement to ask permission to use the restroom in school, and they drew a clear connection between the restroom permission requirement and how they have been stuck their whole lives in an endless loop of needing permission in order to feel comfortable doing virtually everything they do.

At least 80% of the adults didn’t have a clue that students, particularly junior- and high-school students, were asking permission to use the restroom and getting denied. When they learned about it, they were in support of the Movement.

Most rewarding was talking to the students currently in the compulsory education system. We got to see a lot of faces light up when they would realize what exactly the Movement is all about. Many of them took several copies of the ‘Restroom Laws’ letter and Hall Passes to hand out to their friends! The most common response we heard from students about school restroom permission was “I know! Isn’t it stupid?”

We set out a donations container for printing, transportation, etc. We got one dollar from an amazingly enthusiastic person who seemed overtaken with excitement about the Movement. She told us “Eugene really needs this to happen!” Small festivals can be a hard places to get donations, considering most people are buying their food a few booths down, but that single dollar really seemed to mean a lot to her, and it did to us. Thank you!!!

Thanks to all who stopped by the Restroom Laws Movement booth at the Eugene Pride Festival 2010. Your support is greatly appreciated and we really hope to see you in Eugene at one of our next events. Until then, spread the word. It’s time to stop asking permission!

Remember, if you don’t ask for permission, nobody can deny you permission.

Peace,
Brandon R. Farmer

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos, I know photos would seriously add some more weight my reports on the Restroom Laws Movement events, but I still don’t have a working digital camera (mine unfortunately drowned recently in the care of a friend who doesn’t have the ability to replace it), and I’m not sure when I will be able to afford another one. Want to get me one?

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.

Contradiction #4

OSHA, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration has regulations requiring employers to provide their employees with toilet facilities so that they will not suffer the adverse health effects that can result if toilets are not available.” DHHS, the Department of Health and Human Services, which has the authority to make regulations to address people outside the workplace, such as at school, does not provide any similar regulation to that of OSHA’s. (see note)

Contradiction #5

Education is empowerment, but students are being trained to be subservient down to a very basic level.

How many more contradictions can you think of? Leave a comment below.

*note: I learned about Contradiction #4 from the ‘Federal Public Restroom Requirements Initiative,’ which is asking DHHS to provide regulations similar to or better than those provided by OSHA. The contradictions run even deeper here because the data that was used to help create the regulations for OSHA was from research conducted by the National Institutes of Health, a DHHS agency. The initiative is from about three years ago, but I corresponded with one of the people involved in it and he told me that DHHS still hasn’t done anything in response.

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]

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.