By: Tiffany Xu; Staff Writer

As many people know, some bathroom breaks aren’t really for using the bathroom. These breaks don’t just last 5 minutes, but much longer than that. This really bothers teachers and other peers of missing parts or even chunks of time in class. Due to this repetitiveness, the Mills administration has now decided that every student will only get one pass to use the bathroom every month starting in April 2022.

Some students in school don’t actually use the restroom when they ask to. Instead, they roam around the campus for longer periods of time than normal restroom trips. Others take the privileges of using the bathroom when they want for granted. This has become a problem since class is constantly disrupted, and the Mills administration has decided to solve it in order to better the school. 

This one time pass each month will ensure every student will be aware to use it cautiously. Students will have to make sure they go during brunch, lunch, or passing periods instead of taking a trip to the vending machine during class. Another bonus to this new rule is that everyone can actively participate during class at all times. There won’t be a long line of students using the restroom together, and teachers won’t have to repeat themselves for those who aren’t there for the learning. This will limit misbehavior and give more time to studying.

In addition, for each classroom, teachers will get a beeper that will connect to the hall pass the student gets. Once the student walks out the door, the teacher will start the timer that starts at 6 minutes, as every bathroom is very close by to each classroom. When the timer gets to 0, the pass will flash red indicating they didn’t get back to the class. If the student doesn’t get back on time, they will be given detention. This beeper system makes it easy to enforce the new rule. If people don’t follow the rule, or go to the bathroom either way, the administration will lock the bathrooms during class, and open it up only for lunch and brunch. The bathrooms on the language, history, and English halls side of campus will be open for passing periods and locked once the bell rings. If a student really has to use the restroom, they must ask the front office to open it up for them. Unfortunately, they will still get detention if they used their pass up before.
Lots of people would argue against it, but this rule will be very effective on the students for everyone. They won’t be going to visit other classrooms, get something from the vending machine, or to talk to other peers. This will create an exceptional studious habit for all students to get used to always being in class and studying when it is class time, which is great for not just now, but for the future too. But this is for their greater good and to start healthy habits early and to not mess around during learning. Students will appreciate this new rule later on, wondering why it wasn’t there earlier. This also only applies during class, and students will be able to go whenever they want during brunch and lunch whenever they want as a compromise. 

Now with the new one time pass per month rule, everyone will be much more focused and motivated to do their work without any distractions. Students will get used to it as time passes since it is such a new change to the school. The addition of the beeper system will make it much effective and easier for both the students and teachers to enforce the rule.