Test turns to humiliation for kindergartner

WASHBURN, Mo. -- A mother is upset over over a classroom incident that left her kindergartner embarrassed. A 6-year-old girl had an accident in her classroom, and her parents are pushing for policy changes.

"They told me that the teacher had asked her to go to the restroom before testing time," said mother Lisa Skidmore.

Skidmore says asking a young child to go to the bathroom on demand is next to impossible.

"You can't do that to a 6-year-old." That's why, when her kindergartner told her teacher she had to go to the restroom during the test and wasn't allowed, Skidmore couldn't believe it. Her little girl couldn't hold it.

"They didn't even bother trying to clean her up or anything. She still had poop, diarrhea poop, coming out the back, up her front, down her legs," she said.

Skidmore says her daughter was forced to sit in the class for the remainder of test time, about 15 minutes, then mom was called after the test, and it was a 20-minute drive to school to pick up her daughter.

All the while, the little girl had to sit in the mess. No one bothered to clean her up, although a teacher did give her a trash bag to wrap around herself.

"I don't want this to happen to any other kid. That's the point of this: I don't want this ever happening."

School District Superintendent Bob Walker didn't want to go on camera but said he wishes the school would've handled it differently.

I am also a former teacher who administered these tests and if a student (12 & 13 year olds) had to use the bathroom, we allowed them to go with an approved adult (who stood outside of the bathroom, not inside). These were usually parents who volunteered to be proctors who were there as witnesses just in case any ‘funny stuff’ was reported.

The point of the story that everyone who says, “damn straight my kid could have held it” seems to be missing is the child was having diarrhea. Can everyone here claim that they can hold that anytime??? Especially a younger kid who asked to go to the bathroom. What a bunch of maniacs some of you are. I have four kids and expect them to ‘hold it’ on car trips, etc, but diarrhea is sort of an unforeseen problem. Making the child sit there for over a half an hour was horrific.

I told my students at the beginning of every year that they were required to ask to go to the bathroom unless they were about to vomit or have diarrhea, and then they were free to bolt out of the room. Sheesh, even during one of the big tests like this, I would just have the proctor follow them if they were bolting out, and assume it was a real emergency. This teacher should be treated VERY harshly.

Exactly. On the one hand, the teacher should’ve sent the child to the school nurse to wait, and six-year-olds shouldn’t be required to sit through tests with strict rules. But, OTOH, these kinds of accidents are not unusual for young children.

When I was in first grade (Catholic school, circa 1970), I remember two different students wetting themselves in class. Another girl threw up all over the nun. I personally felt sorry for the nun. That same year, I myself threw up all over a lunch table after the nun saw that I hadn’t finished my sandwich, picked my lunch bag out of the trash, and ordered me to finish it. (I’m sure she never did that again.) ;-)

I sure am glad none of our parents ran to the news media to tell what happened, or else there would’ve been a record of those events for many years to come.

You are pretty naive (and somewhat illogical in your rant). Yes, the school would have probably gotten into trouble if the teacher had allowed the girl a potty break. The tests are to be handled strictly in accordance with policy - and every school has to treat the policy the same way or the tests are invalid. Teachers in PS have their hands tied when it comes to policy, be it federal, state, or district. I do not defend the establishment, and I believe the teacher in this case was in the wrong, severely so. However, I have been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and burned it. The schools have the teachers between a rock and a hard place because of all the ridiculous testing requirements. There is so much money riding on results that any teacher not upholding policy is dismissed/ or contract not renewed.

6 is pretty young to expect to sit for long periods of time without potty breaks. Any Kindergarten teacher, or school principal for that matter, knows that. It’s not just the teacher who was out of line, it was also the policy. It is unrealistic to apply policy written for older children to the youngest children in the school. If anyone deserves a break it is the younger children because they are still learning how to be students.

I would like to believe I would have handled the situation differently, and been as discretely as possible, but also planning into the testing periodic breaks where, yes, all test booklets have to be taken up and secured, and all children monitored while they potty. Really, the rules they (kids and teachers) have to follow are so severe, it’s amazing there is any sanity left. Did you know that children are expected to have their ‘business’ done well under 2 minutes? During testing times, they, the students, have to all go to the hallway and stand in line waiting their turn to go 1 at a time to the restroom, and do their business silently and be monitored by an adult to ensure there is no passing of information. Heaven forbid a Kinder will *gasp* cheat. Everyone has to have gone before 10 minutes are up. These days, 10 minutes is a whole recess, well at least it is where I live.

You can be outraged all you want, but this will continue to happen as long as there are standardized tests in Kindergarten. The answer is not to barrage a former teacher for telling the truth, but to make a change - for yourself, or for your children. If you have not already, take your kids out of public school. Private schools have their own sets of tests, but they are not under such scrutiny as those public schools administer. Homeschool your kids if you cannot afford private school. Don’t come back and tell me you have to work. I have friends who homeschool their children and work full time. I also have friends who homeschool their children and are attending college themselves because they need to work. If you want it bad enough you will find a way to do it. The school system is broken. I would love to be able to fix it. Short of that, I can teach my children how they need to be taught - which is not how they’d be taught if they went to school.

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