Dallas ISD school automates bathroom breaks to curb behavior issues on campus

Robert T. Hill Middle School says the new system dramatically impacted discipline problems

These days teachers build in “brain breaks” for students during the school day, just to get the wiggles out.  

No more trips to the bathroom just to move around a bit. If you need to go, you have to have a pass.

Robert T. Hill Middle School has a computer system where kids while working must submit an electronic ticket to go to the bathroom.

"Yeah, it is a bit odd. Like, I thought you could, like, choose, like, which bathroom you go to, but like, they just choose randomly for you," said Ariana Miranda, a 6th grader.

Students and faculty at the Dallas ISD school say the system may seem like a little much but it’s made a huge difference on campus.

"People like can do stuff in the restroom. It's just sometimes nasty, and then sometimes it's, like, really, really bad," said Jamayseion Edmonds, a 6th grader.  "There will be like, groups of boys in the bathroom, you know, I'm not sure about the girls, but I think some of them did that, you know, just, it just be a large crowd in the bathroom."

They were having issues with students meeting up to goof off, or fight in bathrooms but E- Hall pass doesn’t just assign you a bathroom but won’t let large groups of students go to the bathroom at once.

Sure kids could ignore the system’s request, or the system could think you’re having a behavior problem when it’s really just, well, a tummy ache,  but that hasn’t been much of an issue here.

"It eliminates issues in the bathroom, so we don't have kids, you know, fighting, or slap boxing, any of those things. And our referrals have seen a massive decrease over the past four years. Since I've been here, we've seen referrals for fighting specifically go from the number of referrals above 100 to last year we were at about 37," said David McDaniel Assistant Principal.

Teachers like that they can just approve a pass with a push of a button, and keep teaching without stopping the lesson for a raised hand.  Kids like it too.