BY SUMMER CRANDALL

At Truman and many schools, going to the bathroom isn’t just a quick “Can I go?” It requires logging into an app like Kid Account. Students have to request permission digitally, wait for approval, and in some cases, their time out of class is tracked and recorded. What used to be a basic human need has become something scheduled, monitored, and documented.

On paper, the goal makes sense. Schools are trying to reduce hallway disruptions, limit vaping, and protect instructional time. But the issue isn’t discipline. It’s the assumption underneath it: that the best way to solve student behavior is through constant monitoring.

Because when something as basic as using the bathroom becomes a tracked, permission based action, it changes how students experience school. It teaches them that normal needs must be justified. It encourages hesitation over instinct. Students start weighing whether they’re “allowed” to take care of something necessary. And over time, that shifts the classroom environment from one built on trust to one built on permission.That shift is the real problem.

And it doesn’t even create consistency. Some teachers enforce the system strictly, others ignore it when it doesn’t fit the moment. So instead of one clear standard, students navigate a patchwork of rules that change depending on where they sit. The result isn’t order, it’s unpredictability wrapped in surveillance.If the goal is truly to improve behavior and reduce distractions, then focusing on tracking bathroom breaks is solving the wrong layer of the problem.

The real issue schools should be addressing is what’s happening inside the classroom and school environment that leads to students disengaging or leaving in the first place. That means examining whether students feel supported, whether instruction is engaging enough to keep attention, and whether supervision and school culture actually reduce the behaviors schools are trying to prevent.

A more effective approach wouldn’t rely on logging student movement, but on fixing the conditions that make constant monitoring seem necessary in the first place. Clear, consistent expectations across classrooms matter. So does giving teachers structured flexibility to respond to real situations instead of relying on a timer or digital approval system. And most importantly, schools should focus on engagement and environment, not just restriction.

Because when schools treat behavior as something to track instead of something to understand, they don’t eliminate problems they just push them out of sight.And a system that can tell you exactly when a student left class, but can’t explain why students want to leave at all, isn’t solving the problem, it’s avoiding it.