Public schools are a joke. They will not prepare your kids to be an adult. Homeschool your kids if possible.

You need to meet with the building principal and have a chat. No satisfaction there go to the superintendent. None there go to the next school board meeting. I'll share a story later. Idiot administrators come and go.

Well, here's the story. During my 31 years of teaching high school biology I was under the thumb of four different building principals. The first one in '79 was old school to the hilt, ex-marine, and took no guff off students. The building was orderly, and of course, this was pre-computer age. The second principal was a micromanager. Had to stick his nose into everyone's business, but most changes to the schedule of the day made sense. Most.

The third principal came through the ranks, a teacher, then an assistant principal (who usually handles the discipline issues), and then became the principal. Nice guy. Easy going. If it ain't broke don't fix it sort of fella. Let the teachers teach. He always ate lunch in the cafeteria with the kids. Strengthened the connection with the kids he'd say. Well, there came Blue & Gold day one Friday, it was winter, the cafeteria was full of kids eating, and at a given moment the majority of the seniors stood up and commenced to having a jello fight, with blue and gold jello. This fella finished his meal, took his tray to the counter, and stood back and let 'em all go at it for a good five minutes. When the air was clear of jello, he told 'em to clean it up and there'd be no problems. And clean it up they did. We had heard the ruckus from our end and had gone down there to catch the end of it.

This fella retired, unfortunately, and was replaced by a woman who apparently was working on her doctorate. We jumped through hoops we never knew about at the beginning of each year. New administrator and she became more emboldened with more hoops and more silliness. And the new assistant principal became her sidekick.

Back to time between classes and restroom passes. We played the 4-minute game, then the 3-minute game, and finally went back to the 5-minute pass between classes. Lot of trial and error there, but at least we got back to the five minutes between classes without much drama.

So here's where we went with the restroom issue: the edict was declared at a faculty meeting there would be no more restroom passes during class time, and between classes teachers would be taking turns standing in the restroom to monitor the behavior of the students. Fortunately, we had a solid core of teachers with a backbone who challenged the new rules immediately. The restroom guarding was knocked down almost immediately by asking the principal and asst principal who was watching the classroom with students in it while the classroom teacher was guarding the restroom. Hmmm . . . hadn't thought of that.

Next, what if there was an :"emergency" by a student who had to use the restroom between class changes. The two administrators looked at each other, and off the cuff the (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman)'t said to call him, and he would come down and escort the student to the restroom. If he wasn't available, the principal would. And if she wasn't available, the athletics director would. Guess they had this ready to go. So I'm looking around and everyone else was apparently going along with this, until I raised my hand.

So, I said, let's imagine this scenario (which had happened twice already in my teaching years there of mostly sophomores), where Suzie comes running up to the front desk with a look of horror on her face, and I notice a small puddle of blood on her chair. I said do I tell her to head to the restroom immediately, or do I tell her she needs to wait while I call the office. There was silence in the room, and the (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman)'t principal said well, if it's a REAL emergency, just let 'em go. So I asked what categories would be REAL emergencies. And we all debated that for awhile. Filling one's pants would be, obviously an unexpected period would be, maybe throwing up would be, and on it went until the principal announced they'd discuss it and get back to us. And that was the end of that.

If you struck out with the principal, you need to talk to the district administrator. If no satisfaction there, the school board would be next. There's no guarantee the proverbial "next town" is going to do anything smarter.

Now, in defense of "home schools" . . . in the beginning of the rise of home schools that I witnessed back in the 80s, it was 50/50 IMO whether or not the students "graduating" were getting a solid education they could use to pursue further education at a vocational school or college. But what I saw before I retired in 2010 really did impress me. Caliber of learning materials and the networking between families online. Outstanding.

I wish you good luck. Your kids will turn 18 sooner than you think. I would check out the home schooling situation before transporting them to the next town.

Oh, just one more story. There was this one family that home schooled their three girls. One of the girls was in my daughter's karate class and had become good friends. This girl's mom called me up one day to ask me if I could bring some critters off the trapline over during their human anatomy unit and help the girls dissect it. And that was the start of about five or six years worth of me bringing muskrats and beaver over to their home and the dissecting was done on the kitchen table. Good folks they were,

That is the way it is here. 3 minutes between classes, and you can go to the bathroom after you get to class. It has been this way here for years and isn't a problem. The problem is the cell phones. Everyone is addicted to them. They can text between classes but no calls. You need to go to the office and request to call someone. Again, I see no problem with this procedure.

my kids are starting the school day 8 minute earlier and going 8 minutes longer to make up for the number of weather days starting this last Monday.

The control actually goes beyond just needing to ask permission to use the bathroom.

Administration and some teachers are becoming to arrogant and thinking they are above the parent. This school is also known for its democratic indoctrination from teachers.

I guess the only reason we have put up with it as it's convenient to our home being only 5 miles away.

But convenience is getting to be less important compared to having my kids treated like they are in a concentration camp and told to get on the box car.

It's time to make a change. I am just curious if other schools are getting this extreme.

. . . My counselors were just ion love with me, told me I needed to go to college, I wouldn't make anything of myself otherwise, I was just wasting myself going to tech school, I was stupid for going to tech school, etc. Screw them. They never helped me one bit and pushed hard to convince me to take on a career path I didn't want. . . . .

The trades are wide open. If I was a mechanically inclined young man in today's world I'd go into the plumbing business. You'll have work forever, set your own hours, be your own boss, and have folks begging you to come "fix their problem."