“Humans need water to survive. Your body is approximately 60 percent water, your brain is seventy percent water, and your lungs are nearly ninety percent water. Each day, your body must replace 2.4 liters – or about 2.5 quarts of water – through ingested liquid and foods.”

That is the introduction of an article posted on healthyeating.com, written by  Robin Elizabeth Margolis, a former editor of a health law newsletter who holds a BA in biology. Margolis’s article explains exactly why we need to drink water – the liquid of life lubricates joints, sustains the nervous system, monitors internal homeostasis, and purges the body of waste through several methods, including, of course, urination.

The website Medical News Today, which also explains why “keeping hydrated has a huge impact on overall health” in the article Why is Drinking Water Important by James McIntosh, is just one of the countless publications that encourage hydration and discuss why water is so crucial to human life.

As a human who likes being alive and would prefer to stay that way, I drink a lot of water. Personally, staying hydrated has improved my athletic performance, lessened the occurrence of headaches, reduced cramping, and has greatly benefited my immune system. Results like this aren’t just isolated to me – many BUHS students choose to stay hydrated because of all of the perks that come with drinking water.

There is one thing that, although terrific for my health, happens to be terribly annoying: I have to pee all the time. So on the first day of school, you can understand why I was livid when my teachers announced that there was a new rule regarding bathroom trips. This new rule is second in abomination only to the Intolerable Acts passed by British Parliament in the colonial days of America. The Intolerable Acts catalyzed an entire revolution, so if you are unfamiliar with the new bathroom rule, I hope the ranking stated above can bring some insight to the terror inflicted upon hydrated persons attending Bishop Union High School.

Anyways, the new bathroom rule states that for every class, students may only use the bathroom three times a semester. I assumed that the purpose behind the new rule was to simply keep students in class, and as reasonable as that sounds, I could not help being angry. I began paying attention to how many times I went to the bathroom on a normal day. Once before I leave my house, once before first period, once in between first and second period, once during break, once between third and fourth period, once between fourth and fifth period, once at the beginning of lunch, once at the end of lunch, once between sixth and seventh period, and sometimes right after school. That’s about eight to nine trips to the bathroom during suggested times. And I still have to go during class. 

I can’t just stop drinking water, because when I’m not hydrated, I feel awful and exercising becomes self-inflicted torture, even if I’m not running. I can still go between classes, but while in class, I now have to hold it in more than ever, which is sometimes painful, always annoying, and not conducive to my learning – how can I pay attention if I’m struggling to keep from peeing my pants?

I’m not the only student who dislikes the new rule. I spoke with fellow senior Josie Dillard, who was not a fan of the rule. Dillard does not always have to go to the bathroom, but the rule feels unnecessary, and especially “unfair.” According to Dillard, this new rule blockades high school hooligans from messing around in the halls when they should be in class, but it is unjust to punish the rest of the student body for something that only a small percentage of students are responsible for.

I also talked to a demographic that is heavily affected by this new rule. Mike Molina, who plays on the varsity football team, harbors a deep opposition to the bathroom rule. “Sometimes I gotta go to the bathroom. But I only get three [passes]! I don’t know how you can hold it for that long, it doesn’t make sense,” Molina said when I interviewed him.

Other student athletes also shared our viewpoint. Senior and seasoned student athlete Jordan Kost announced that he is “against [the rule]” because he is “repeatedly being asked to hydrate throughout the day.” Kost explained that he believes that hydration is important for everyone, not just athletes, and the bathroom rule complicates what he referred to as a “pee cycle.”

“If I have to pee in the middle of class, then I’m going to have to pee in the middle of that class every single day if I’m drinking the same amount of water,” Kost lamented. Kost drinks around sixty ounces of water while at school to stay in tip-top shape for the cross-country season, which has him running 15-20 miles a week.

Throughout my first and second week of school, whenever I brought up the bathroom rule, many students complained. However, students were not the only ones flummoxed by the new rule. A handful of teachers expressed their displeasure with the rule, but when I reached out to interview one key teacher for the Bronco Round-up, they became reluctant to go on the record, not wanting to be affiliated with any negative perspective toward the new rule.

Now, entering my third week at school, I am concerned with how the rule is going to affect me personally through the year. Although one teacher pointed out that the new bathroom pass system provides eighteen bathroom trips a semester, that did not make me feel any better, because according to junior and mathematician Jennifer Velazquez, “you have six academic classes, three passes per class…you only get to have a bathroom trip once every five days, which I think is detestable.” And I agree.

Even if you only go once every five days, there’s still the chilling possibility that you may use all your passes for one class –  and then you still might have to use the bathroom during that class. On top of this, each bathroom pass doubles as a hall pass. So if you forget your binder in your locker, you have to use a precious pass or face the consequence of not having your work in class. But as someone whose tendencies to make mistakes and forget my binder (or grab the wrong one) are simply human, the limit of three passes per class per semester only adds an additional and unnecessary level of stress to an already stressful environment.

In a place where test scores, GPAs, academic and athletic performance, and other temporary minutiae are shoved down a student’s throat and regarded as the defining principles in life, even just a seemingly reasonable bathroom rule can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The bathroom rule may seem insignificant, but in reality, its a stressor that conglomerates with all other issues that every student must face, forming an even larger burden for students to carry with them.

The only silver lining to this dark cloud that is the bathroom rule is the possibility that I could develop a UTI from holding in my pee everyday. Then I could sue the school and maybe go to college for free.