PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philly parents say recent revisions to the school district’s wellness policy are a start, but they don’t go far enough. They are continuing their push for a policy guaranteeing bathroom breaks for students.
Members of the parent and community group Lift Every Voice have been urging the school board to establish a written policy ensuring that students get two daily water and bathroom breaks, as well as a 20-minute recess and a 20-minute lunch period.
Parent Troy Spence addressed the board at a public hearing Thursday night.
“The amount of stories I hear at the dinner table from our kids about the lack of recess and lunchtime, classmates peeing on themselves, or seeing our kids run to the bathroom as soon as they get home each day,” he said.
“Kids are tired, they’re hungry, they’re distracted and anxious. Not because they don’t want to learn, but because their basic needs aren’t being met in consistent and humane ways,” said parent Amy Faulring.
“The children would be a lot better off if they had the right to pee, poop, drink water, and move their bodies,” added parent Saxon Nelson. “Unfortunately, the most recent draft of this policy still does not guarantee that basic dignity.”
Parents said the board’s draft revision prohibits silent lunches as discipline, but it doesn’t guarantee bathroom breaks. Superintendent Tony Watlington said he agreed kids should be able to go to the bathroom when they need to, and he cautioned against unsubstantiated stories.
“I have yet, in three and a half years in our schools, to see any child in a diaper because they can’t go to the bathroom,” he said. “Let’s be careful that we don’t say things that we don’t have evidence to support.”
The policy is on the agenda for a board review at its Nov. 20 meeting.