Just wanted to get your opinions on this ...

[donna723]

... and see if they agree with mine!

:difficult child:

CANAL WINCHESTER, Ohio -- Two Ohio boys were kicked off the school bus for a day after passing gas and causing a ruckus.


James Nichols, the father of the 13-year-old boy involved, said the incident Thursday led to giggling and heckling and prompted riders to lower windows, The Associated Press reported.


He told The Columbus Dispatch the boys apparently were considered repeat offenders because a driver had warned them after a similar indiscretion weeks ago. This time, officials at Canal Winchester Middle School decided it was an obscene gesture that violated the student code of conduct, the AP reported.


Nichols said it's "laughable" the boys would be punished for something natural and unintentional.


His wife said she's offended by it after recently being hospitalized with gastro-intestinal problems.

 

[AnnieO]

If this is obscene? No one wants to be near MY family. EVER. We can strip paint off walls. Especially husband and Onyxx.

 

[hearts and roses]

... and see if they agree with mine!

:difficult child:

His wife said she's offended by it after recently being hospitalized with gastro-intestinal problems.

That last part had me ROFLMAO. Otherwise, just ridiculous.

 

[Hound dog]

Ok how can you punish a child for a natural body function?

Oh, yeah..........I'm thinking this goes along the line of not allowing kids to use the restroom during class time saying that the 3 mins between classes is enough to crowd into a restroom and all go at once. That one didn't work with our family. School was actually quite ticked that not only did I not back up their ignorant policy, I got a doctor note stating my kids basically "gotta go when nature calls". omg Which made it so they couldn't fight it.

Ridiculous.

 

[flutterby]

I wish those were the biggest issues I had to contend with on a daily basis.

For crying out loud....

 

[muttmeister]

It may be making a mountain out of a molehill BUT I remember when I was in school; passing gas was absolutely not allowed. Yes, it is a natural body function but it can be controlled in most cases. And I have seen kids obviously doing it on purpose and then laughing about it. In the old days if one did "escape" you hoped to heavens nobody knew it was you because you would be punished by the teacher and ostracised by your peers. Now it has become something to be proud of. I have very little patience for this kind of garbage but everybody has passed me by and I don't think they are going to win; standards have gone downhill too much.

 

[KTMom91]

Yet another reason why I don't sub in junior high...yes, it's a natural bodily function, but when the gas is deliberately launched, and then the boys (usually) laugh hysterically, it sets everyone off.

 

[donna723]

I don't think it was all that "accidental"! Not that I think it was something to get all that excited about and I wouldn't consider it an "obscene gesture", but I doubt if it was an accident either. The article said these two had done the same thing a few weeks ago too. When I read this story, I could just see my son and his best friend pulling something like this when they were that age! This is two 13 year old boys, remember? At that age something like this comes off as high comedy. What are the odds that that two friends had simultaneous gas attacks on a closed up school bus ...twice!

But now the father is claiming it was an accident and the mother is "offended"! Next they will be suing somebody because their kid farted on the school bus!

My son did a lot worse than this when he was in high school and never really got in trouble. All he got was the honor of being elected "Class Clown" - four years in a row!

 

[shellyd67]

Seriously ??? boys will be boys.

I wish that is all I had to contend with too flutterby.

But the wife being offended is kinda funny!

 

[Star*]

Well.......unless they pulled the covers up over someones head and held them there? I........actually can see THAT as a ground for divorce, and could have thrown that up in the court years ago along wtih abuse - but seriously?

THAT is a Warrior Mom of a new breed. A rose by any other name I guess.

 

[klmno]

My guess is that if the bbus driver hadn't been reacting so strongly to begin with, there wouldn't have been repeat offenses. It's probably the bus driver's reactions that kept them doing this. The other kids p[robably would have gotten bored with the same "incident" happening every day and then the boys would have found something else to do.

 

[susiestar]

What is it with OH and toilet issues? The schools there seem to have the STUPIDEST policies about anything pertaining to the lower half of your digestive process that I have EVER heard!!! First I had a 3rd gr teacher who was six feet 2 inches tall and weighed about 300 pounds. He sat on the heater (they were built into vents that came up about counter height) and farted ALL winter long. I do mean ALL. There were days that when we left his room our clothing smelled like farts. The other teachers would then try to punish US for being "dirty" or "unclean" or not washing our uniforms. It was nuts.

Then Wiz was in second grade and had to sign a bad behavior book if he had to use the bathroom before lunch - which was at noon. That was their one bathroom break and you had to pay a "caught being good" buck (which you could spend on toys if you had enough of them) and sign that book if you had to go at any other time. He was on asthma medications that made him have to go a LOT. The book had one page for every day and all the other kids got to see what you wrote - heck sometimes the teacher would announce how many times you did whatever and ask the class if maybe you should have figured out that it wasn't allowed - this included using the restroom!!! It was NOT started because kids took too many toilet breaks or spent too long in the bathroom or played around in the halls on potty breaks. It was just the policy from day one. A note from the doctor saying that Wiz had to be allowed to go when he had to, regardless of when the breaks were was sent home with a note saying that they were NOT changing the policy just for him and the doctor needed to figure out a way to help him "hold it" instead of making excuses for his bad behavior. YES, they said BAD BEHAVIOR meaning that going to the restroom was not allowed. This school had combined grades 2 and 3 so that all classes were mixed and they had kids who hadn't had accidents since age 3 now wetting their pants!!! Not one or two, five or six a WEEK and not all the same kids. They also provided water bottles at each child's desk and encouraged them to drink to stay hydrated. They saw no problem with that and no way it would contribute to the kids wetting themselves.

I finally made them stop by getting a friend's lawyer father and judge grandfather to send a note saying that this was child abuse and that they could NOT have the bad behavior book because it violated privacy laws and could not charge ANYONE anything to use the bathroom because OH has a law against pay toilets. It literally had to go that far. I had more parents thanking me for this, and kids I never even knew hugging me in thanks for being able to go to the bathroom.

I have friends in OH who have had similar problems from schools in every major city in OH.

And now they are kicking kids off the bus for farting? Yes, it can be controlled to some extent. Yes, teens especially boys DO fart to make people laugh or uncomfortable. Yes, they do think it is hilarious when someone farts loudly. Esp if someone has already gotten an adult to make a big deal about it - like this driver clearly did. Yes, sometimes you DO need to open windows when the farts are that bad.

Do they not realize that sometimes the kdis CANNOT control it and use it as a joke rather than to sit and be embarrassed? Cause if you are not laughing about it then everyone will laugh AT you and tease you about it. So if YOU make a joke about it then it cuts the teasing/bullying majorly. Teen boys have HUGE appetites because they are growing so much. Often their digestive system is off kilter because the surging hormones and the sheer quantity of food they eat. If the boys are eating a diet with a decent amount of fiber and veggies, or one high in grease and fat, then they will increase the amt of farting they do exponentially. Given the school lunch program, I bet they are getting a high fat diet that has little fiber unless they have a parent who pushes healthy food. All of this means that they are going to fart. Being the age they are, they are going to use it to clown around. Being around other kids their age, with minimal supervision (buses are one of the least supervised times in a school day, in my opinion) it may cause a bit of a ruckus.

So WHAT? Were they physically hurting anyone? Were they running around? Or was the driver just in a bad mood and not wanting the kids to be kids? in my opinion this is more a driver mess up than a kid problem. If the driver had laughed a bit, then told the kids to settle down and knock it off it likely would NOT have been a big deal in any way, shape or form.

But I guess having natural bodily functions is not allowed in OH schools. I hope that a whole group of kids and their parents eats a ton of gas producing food and then goes to the superintendent's office to protest this. Esp cause the boy's mom has gastro problems - they run in families so the boy truly may NOT be able to help it. And if he doesn't make a joke of it he is going to be bullied something fierce.

 

[AnnieO]

I am firmly with Susie here. I've never been able to fart on command. Or hold it for that matter.

And Jett? Has a horrible problem with it. Kids tease him. The school told us to do something about it. So we did... He has unlimited bathroom passes, thanks to the pediatrician. The school wasn't happy... But... They're stuck...

 

[muttmeister]

When I taught school, I always wondered what ever happened to common sense. The administration had no common sense. The kids had no common sense. The parents often had no common sense. And a lot of the teacher had no common sense. (Of course, I did. If everybody would just listen to me, all of the problems would have been solved. LOL)

This is one of those issues where common sense is needed and lacking. I do know that the farting issue is much worse than when I was a kid in school. We knew it was not allowed and we'd do our darndest to hold it in and if it got out we probably got made fun of, which reinforced the idea that it was not something you should do. But, because it happended so seldom, people figured that you couldn't help it and you didn't get kicked off the bus or punished severely. You might get a few minutes of detention but that was no big deal. Now we have schools that either ignore it because it is a "natural" function so you should be able to do it anyplace and everyplace at anytime OR they over-react and make a federal case out of it. No common sense.

As far as the bathroom issue goes, it is the same thing. Kids have to go at times and to deny that is stupid and, as far as I'm concerned, it is a form of abuse to not let them go when they need to. I did have one kid who'd go to the john and stay there until I went to get him. I've had other kid who use it as an excuse to get out of the classroom to cause trouble other places. I've had a few who I would only let go if the aide went with them because they'd pee in the trash cans, poop in the showers, pull the fire alarm, and just generally cause trouble the whole time they were out of the room. I've had kids who claimed they had to go every half hour and when I'd mention it to their parents I was told that, no, there was no medical problem and there was no reason for them to be going so often. It becomes really frustrating to have to spend all of your time as a teacher directing traffic to and from the bathroom instead of teaching what the kids need to know. But again, common sense should take care of a lot of those problems. Schedule regular bathroom breaks. Have a reasonable policy of what to do when somebody needs to go between breaks. If somebody thinks they have to go OFTEN, and there is no corroboration from parent or doctor, let him go and then have him make up the time during recess, after school, or whatever. There are ways to deal with these problems. But some power hungry person decides to enforce an unreasonable rule and it causes trouble for teachers, kids, and parents. No common sense - I'm glad I'm retired.

 

[DammitJanet]

I dont remember this as being a huge issue as a kid. I dont remember girls having a huge issue with passing gas. Boys may have done it in the locker rooms or some such places but not around us. Not if they wanted girl friends. I know the only time I had bathroom issues was that time of the month and it was one year in HS with a really jerk of a VP. I had a class a long way away from the class before it and I really needed to use the restroom before the next class...just had to. I would get a tardy to my next class every day for a week even though I would go in and tell the teacher I needed to run to the bathroom...and why. Well...we just couldnt work it out and I was getting all these tardies and they were adding up to detentions. I got mad. Imagine that, me mad!

So stormed into the VP's office and told him I would serve the detentions if he could prove to me that he could go to the bathroom in the amount of time that was allotted for me to go. Now he had to perform the same acts that I had to perform. Go from the classroom I was in first, go all the way across campus, put my books down, go into the bathroom, undress, sit down, take one pad off, pee, put a clean pad on, re-dress, wash hands, get purse, go back to class. All in 5 minutes. He couldnt do it. So I said if you cant do it, how can you expect me to do it every day for a week...every month? I got my point across and didnt get detentions or tardies if I went in and told the teacher I was going to the bathroom and came right back.

I rest my case!

 

[DDD]

That never was a problem in our family but a few months ago I watched that Toddlers With Tiaras ??? or whatever it is called
and a cute little girl evidently shared that activity in home contests with her Dad. I was watching the show thinking "you must have misunderstood D3" when little Suzie Q headed to go on stage, hesitated for a moment, and then gave her Dad a Big smile as she blew gas before going on to strut her stuff. I couldn't believe it. I think I'm getting too old. It was not necessary...it was planned. Her Dad laughted. Her Mom shook her head. D3 thought "good thing you aren't my little girl or you would be doing penance for acting rudely!" DDD