(The Lion) — Ashley Barrera, a Houston area public elementary school teacher, has been fired after denying her first grade students permission to use the restroom, causing multiple accidents.
Barrera, who worked for the Conroe Independent School District, blocked bathroom access as a form of punishment, but parents and administrators promptly took action.
“This afternoon, we were made aware of a situation in a first-grade classroom in which restroom privileges were revoked,” wrote Charita Smith, principal at Bartlett Elementary, in an email to parents, describing Barrera’s actions as “not indicative of the safe and loving environment we foster at Bartlett Elementary.”
Text messages shared on social media by local parents revealed the teacher had attempted to contact parents to inform them of the incident, writing, “Today my class lost their privilege to use the restroom during class, because they lost their restroom badge while being in the hallway.”
“Unfortunately, we had some friends who really needed to use the restroom and ended up peeing on themselves,” the text continued. “I do want to apologize for that incident.”
Two days after placing Barrera on leave, the district issued a statement that she had been fired.
Parents, however, have continued to speak up about the abuse, saying the issue had been “ongoing for weeks.”
One parent shared that her daughter’s classmates reportedly “were screaming and crying to go to the bathroom and some of them even went to the restroom on themselves.”
Another parent spoke out about the psychological and social impact of Barrera’s decision, stating that one little girl “unfortunately soiled herself then and there, in front of the whole class, which – the class erupted in laughter, as kids that are seven do, and the little girl was just absolutely mortified and humiliated.
“My son was just recounting that there was urine on the seat, there was urine all over the little girl, there was a puddle of urine under the chair that nobody came to help and nobody came to clean up for the remainder of the day,” the parent concluded.
Preventing a child – or any human – from using the restroom as soon as he or she needs to is known to cause medical complications, such as weakened pelvic floor muscles and urinary tract infections.
