Schools and especially teachers should be two things that students can count on to make them feel safe and comfortable. Unfortunately for one student in the San Diego Unified School District, this wasn’t the case. What happened, you ask? Well, the former student was “forced to urinate in a bucket after her request for a bathroom break was denied.” After years of battling depression, having to put up with gossip and “lewd texts,” and suffering from a suicide attempt, the student has finally been granted justice after winning a lawsuit against the San Diego Unified School District, who has been “ordered to pay more than $1.25 million in damages.” The settlement comes after her initial claim seeking $25,000 was denied by San Diego Unified.
Schools, and especially teachers, should be two things that students can count on to make them feel safe and comfortable. Unfortunately for one student at San Diego Unified, this wasn’t the case. What happened, you ask? Well, a former student was forced to urinate in a bucket “after her request for a bathroom break was denied.” After years of battling depression, having to put up with gossip and “lewd texts,” and suffering from a suicide attempt, the student has finally been granted justice after winning a lawsuit against the San Diego Unified School District, who has been “ordered to pay more than $1.25 million in damages.” The settlement comes after her initial claim seeking $25,000 was denied by San Diego Unified.
So what exactly happened that led to the student being forced to urinate in a bucket? For starters, the incident occurred a few years back, on February 22, 2012. During a 25-minute advisory class, the student needed to use the restroom, but “was afraid the teacher wouldn’t give her a pass.” She asked anyway, but her request to use the restroom was denied by her teacher, Gonja Wolf, who believed it was against school rules at the time to issue a bathroom pass. Instead, she motioned the student towards a “supply room adjacent to the classroom where she could privately urinate in a bucket and dump the contents in a sink.”
You read that right. The poor student had to urinate in a bucket because the teacher thought it was against the rules to let a student use the bathroom. In the teacher’s defense, lawyers claimed in court that “Wolf never intended to embarrass the girl, rather the teacher thought she had found a solution to what she mistakenly thought was a strict no-bathroom-break policy.” An attorney for the school district, Katheryn Martin, explained that Wolf had a “lapse of judgment, she thought that was a good idea.”
She thought it was a good idea? Having a student urinate in a storage closet was a good idea? Seriously? Well I guess when you consider reports that Wolf “had recently purchased a bucket to serve as a make-shift toilet in the case of a security lock-down,” and had even “urinated in the bucket a couple of times herself while working late at school,” one shouldn’t be too surprised with how she reacted to her student’s request for a bathroom pass. After all, reports say she “took a strict interpretation” of the bathroom break rule during the 25-minute advisory classes, classes that were intended to act like study halls. Though teachers were advised against allowing students frequent bathroom breaks, “the school expected them to use common sense,” according to San Diego Unified attorneys. It would seem in this case, Wolf did not use common sense, and her actions have had grave consequences for the student.
According to Brian Watkins, an attorney, “something like this never should have happened to a 14-year-old girl just entering high school.” He added, “She took the stand and told a really embarrassing story, she told the jury how this has affected her life and how she is still working through issues.” Once word got out of what had happened, the student “was mercilessly teased and forced to transfer schools twice.” The media coverage that ensued didn’t help matters, either.
Soon after the incident occurred, the school announced to teachers that students should never “be denied bathroom trips.” Additionally, the school apologized for what had happened and even offered assistance. As for the teacher? Well, she was “put on paid administrative leave and never returned” to the school.
In addition to being awarded $1.25 million in damages, the student received $41,000 to help with “past and current medical expenses,” and she’s managed to overcome her harrowing experience enough to complete school and land a job. However, she’s still undergoing “therapy due to post-traumatic stress caused by the incident.” For the time being, she’s pleased that her voice was heard and that the case has finally been settled.
Sources:
SD High School Student Forced To Pee In Bucket Wins $1.25M Lawsuit
San Diego Student Forced To Urinate In Bucket Wins $1.25M Lawsuit
Join the conversation!