When walking through the halls, it’s very common to see some sort of strange or unique bathroom pass. Whether that’s a pole, broom, or a box, some of these accessories have become quite popular. Though they might cause some staring or a few giggles in the halls, teachers are very proud of their unconventional passes. Here is an overview of their reasoning behind them.
English teacher Rachel Wan’s bathroom pass consists of a laminated sheet of paper attached to the top of a long metal beam. “It tends not to disappear. Before, when I used other things for bathroom passes, they would kind of magically just walk away and never find their way back inside the class. But this one has never gotten lost,” Wan said. “I have people who will, at the beginning of the year, be like, ‘Do I really take this?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes.’ They do this big sigh, and then they have to leave with it anyway. So that’s great.”
Spanish teacher Michael Mueller attached his bathroom pass to a broom. At first, students didn’t want to take the broom, but when they were told a Harry Potter reference, it became more well liked. “Pretend it’s a Nimbus 2000 from Harry Potter. You can get there faster if you fly.’ I made a joke out of it. So now they like it,” Mueller said.
English teacher Susie Choe created a necklace with a picture of her face as the pendant. “I want everyone to know who is responsible for that student at that time. If I have a student who’s taking too long, everyone knows who to come and talk to about it. If I have a student who’s doing something fantastic, everyone knows who to come and talk to about it. I feel like we should all make students carry who they belong to,” Choe said.
English teacher Erin Walsh made her bathroom pass herself.“I originally had a sign I got at Walmart and it had a little rope, some little wooden beads, but that broke like two weeks into the year.” Walsh hoped her new pass would be large enough to not allow students to easily slip it into their pockets, and humorously add a ‘make good choices’ reminder. “[I decorated my pass like this] so it was obnoxious, and so that whenever anyone goes to the bathroom, they know that I am hovering, watching them go, to and from, and I want them to make good choices.”
ELD teacher JP Nelson wanted his sign to be visible, so he taped it to a large chip box. The hope was that keeping the pass attached to a chip box would prevent lengthy trips to the “bathroom” and ensure hall monitors could easily see it. “The only question students ever ask me in my classes is if they can go to the bathroom. They never ask me any questions about English,” Nelson said.
While some of these bathroom passes are strange, and a little chunky, teachers do have their reasons for making their bathroom passes the way they are. Whether it’s to prevent their bathroom pass from getting lost, or to make sure the pass is easily visible, these clunky arrangements serve an important purpose.
