The ethicality of limited bathroom passes is something that has avoided scrutiny for years, despite many other harmful practices being brought to question. Many teachers incentivize not using bathrooms by turning in passes for extra credit, using  this practice as a way to monitor students leaving the class. This sounds like a win-win: getting extra credit along with the teacher’s increased ability to monitor their students. However, that fantasy could not be farther from reality. Limited bathroom passes are harmful for all students. 

According to CBC News, an average person urinates between 4-10 times a day, and by putting a limit on the number of times students can use the bathroom, schools are limiting students’ rights to fulfill a basic bodily function, a restriction against their basic human rights. Additionally, holding for long periods of time can be harmful to the bladder, causing problems later on according to healthline.com. 

For people with periods, situations like these are even more difficult, only layering the unfairness of having limited bathroom passes. People with periods cannot control them, and if someone were to get their period but not have any passes, they would have no choice but to wait. About half of the world’s population is born female, experiencing periods throughout their lifetime. Many high school students experience their period on school days, which is already stressful as is. When the person has no choice but to wait it out or have an extremely uncomfortable conversation with their teacher, it can often be mortifying for the student. More often than not, someone would not want to tell their teacher that they are on their period, especially when many teachers are still not understanding.

Many things have changed in school systems, and limiting students on their use of bathrooms needs to go. Limiting a student’s right to use the bathroom or incentivizing them to not use the bathroom during 90-minute classes is an obstruction of their rights and a health hazard.