Students using staff restrooms

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher that transferred to MCPS from another county post Covid. At my school I’ve encountered multiple students who have passes to use staff bathrooms rather than student bathrooms. This is not the norm in other counties. Usually, for liability reasons, teachers are discouraged from even entering the same bathroom as a student. At first I thought it was just something my school did. However, I just read an article that mentioned an MCPS student using staff bathrooms to accommodate their religious beliefs. I’m wondering, is this a widespread practice across the county?

[Anonymous]

Yes the single stall staff bathrooms can be approved for students to use as an accommodation for religious beliefs, students who do not feel comfortable using gendered bathrooms, or students with medical conditions that might require more privacy.

[Anonymous]

I’ve only seen it as a medical accommodation but it does make sense as an accommodation for religious beliefs and gender bathroom issues. Glad to see MCPS doing that.

[Anonymous]

Interesting--at my school we've been explicitly told that students canNOT use the single staff bathrooms, due to the liability of a student being alone behind a locked door.

[Anonymous]

I thought those kids could use the bathroom in the health room or main office, but not just anywhere at school.

[Anonymous]

There was a whole thread on here last spring from a mom complaining that her kid (with a medical issue) wasn't being permitted to use the staff bathrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought those kids could use the bathroom in the health room or main office, but not just anywhere at school.

It depends on the school. My school has only a handful of staff bathrooms stalls for a staff of 100. Finding an open stall during the four minutes between classes is already challenging, but I and two other teachers also have chronic health conditions or disabilities where bathroom access is an issue. So far, we’ve managed to reserve two single bathrooms for teacher use only. It’s a new school year and I anticipate having to fight for those again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought those kids could use the bathroom in the health room or main office, but not just anywhere at school.

It depends on the school. My school has only a handful of staff bathrooms stalls for a staff of 100. Finding an open stall during the four minutes between classes is already challenging, but I and two other teachers also have chronic health conditions or disabilities where bathroom access is an issue. So far, we’ve managed to reserve two single bathrooms for teacher use only. It’s a new school year and I anticipate having to fight for those again.

This is a constant struggle at my school, too. We have two bathrooms (single stall) for over 100 teachers. I find there’s always a line, and I often have to return to my classroom because my 5 minute break is up. I’ve had several health issues over the years because I don’t have reliable access to a bathroom.

One of the many joys of teaching!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought those kids could use the bathroom in the health room or main office, but not just anywhere at school.

When you’re talking about medical issues, that may not work for all kids.

[Anonymous]

Geez, more and more I see it sucks to be a teacher in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Geez, more and more I see it sucks to be a teacher in MCPS.

Or a student for that matter.

[Anonymous]

Just curious - what would be a religious reason for having to use a single-stall bathroom? Would this be something like ritual hand-washing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious - what would be a religious reason for having to use a single-stall bathroom? Would this be something like ritual hand-washing?

MCPS allows students to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity rather than biological sex. This can cause issues for any devout Muslim students. For example, if a young woman wears a hijab, she does so to keep her hair covered around biological males who aren’t relatives. CAIR mentioned in press release that a female student went into the restroom to adjust her hijab and encountered a student who was biologically male but female identifying. Since the student saw her without the hijab, this violated her religious beliefs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Geez, more and more I see it sucks to be a teacher in MCPS.

What moderately large public school system doesn't?

[Anonymous]

"liability" is code for "admin biases and preferences". Liability is always a risk either way.