The Bathroom

The bathroom causes no end of problematic situations in elementary school. There's the not making it on time, there's taking too long and playing in the bathroom, not washing with soap or using up all the soap, stalls locked from the inside that have to be opened by sliding underneath, paper towels on the floor, a roll of toilet paper all unrolled, and the list goes on. Clogs are their own special brand of problematic bathroom situations. Sometimes trying to correct one of the aforementioned bathroom problems only leads to further complications.

One day we found that someone had unrolled a whole pile of clean toilet paper onto the floor. I asked Javonte, on his way into the bathroom, if he would rip off the toilet paper and throw it away. He dutifully did as I asked, but a few minutes later he came out of the stall and announced, "The toilet's overflowed!" I realized then that I was not as clear as I should have been about exactly how he was to dispose of the unwanted trash. “But I ripped it up!” he explained.