Campus Security Mr. D rolls through the halls, and comes across a student on their phone. Approaching them, he checks the students bathroom pass on Synergy, noticing the student has been out of class for 15 minutes. He now takes the student up to administration, to question them about why they are out wandering everyday for 10+ minutes. 

Some teachers here are testing the use of timed passes through Synergy for when students must use the bathroom during class time. They will work like this: when the student signs out to use the bathroom, they notify the teacher, and the teacher sets a timer through an application in Synergy. The teacher can choose the length of the pass: one to eight minutes.

These timers are to prevent kids from going to the bathroom and wandering around the halls or hanging out with their friends for 20 minutes during class time.  It will also track if the student uses the bathroom too much during a specific period.  When the kids in the class need to use the restroom, and the teacher only allows one person out at a time, the students wandering cause a big disruption. 

Although the administration is trying to propose a solution to this issue, it just seems like it is going to be a bigger annoyance to students and teachers. First of all, teachers may be disrupted during class by students because they have to log into Synergy and start the timer. This can be very distracting to teachers who are in the midst of a lesson. Once the pass is more in use, each class will have a kiosk for kids to sign out on. 

Second, some students might take longer than seven minutes to genuinely complete their bathroom duties. Especially since many of the bathrooms are closed at school, students may have to go on an expedition across the campus to find an available bathroom. And sometimes, going to the bathroom is just not a quick trip.
There are other issues facing students who wish to use the bathroom responsibly, mainly teachers, who can also make it difficult for students to do their business. Many teachers have rules that limit the number of times students can use the bathroom during the trimester, and some only allow two trips. It is not fair for teachers to demand that students use the bathroom only during designated breaks. They don’t realize that the bathrooms sometimes have lines of up to 15 students waiting during break or at lunch.

All these issues, along with the lack of bathroom availability and the lack of sanitation in the bathrooms due to student misconduct, make it a much harder time than necessary trying to use the bathroom, and it is only going to get harder with new rules and regulations that limit the time we have to use the bathroom.