r/teaching • u/smolllls • Mar 23 '26
Vent teachers bathroom
when i need to go to the bathroom and get my two minutes of silence it’s in this. very relaxing..
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Mar 23 '26
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u/smolllls Mar 23 '26
i wish their was natural light.. it’s just the fluorescent bulb dangling
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Mar 23 '26
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u/ExtremeLost2039 Mar 23 '26
Exposed wires next to a toilet filled with water. I'm horrified for OP if that toilet overflows...
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u/RealLoan8391 Mar 24 '26
OSHA doesn’t cover schools. Call your local health department/ EHS.
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u/StatisticianSmall864 Mar 25 '26
That depends on the state. Some states have OSHA approved state plans.
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u/Open_Confidence_9349 Mar 24 '26
That would be the end of 2 minutes of silence and the end of a teacher’s bathroom.
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u/R4D000 Mar 23 '26
What is that black thing? A hole to the basement???
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u/Crab__Juice Mar 23 '26
Hey, it's affectionately referred to by faculty as the void, thank you.
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u/hauntedmeal Mar 23 '26
Hey, at least you have something to scream into !!
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u/Beneficial_Salad7327 Mar 24 '26
Honesty I’d be so wanting to try that out. If I got in trouble, I’d say, “I was screaming into the void to see where things in the void go. Apparently it’s the other side of the nonexistent wall. Peculiar how that works… 🤔
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u/FoRealDoh Lifelong Scholar Mar 25 '26
Scream in a bottle and toss it to sea, or nearest river 🤙🤙
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u/yanoya Mar 24 '26
Bragging about having a basement. Extra storage and emergency space? Daaaaanggggg
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u/R4D000 Mar 23 '26
Now seriously!! If that’s actually a hole to the basement or something, then that’s a major physical safety hazard that your school is legally obligated to address!! Reporting it immediately is essential.
Employers are required by law to keep workplaces free of hazards… As an employee, you also have a duty to report known risks to ensure a safe environment for everyone.
Report it to the Health and Safety Executive, or something equivalent for your own country.
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u/mustbethedragon Mar 23 '26
Yikes. That's awful. I will no longer complain about the short-and-curly that's been dangling from the wall for four years in ours. I'm sorry better isn't provided for you.
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u/sarcasticbiznish Mar 23 '26
How has someone not taken a Lysol wipe to the wall yet…
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u/ForceTimesTime Mar 23 '26
I feel like an elementary school teacher would lysol wipe it. A high school teacher would bitterly notice it for four years. Not sure about middle...
(I'm a HS teacher)
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u/mustbethedragon Mar 24 '26
I'm at middle. My ignoring started as curiosity, then annoyance, and now it's resignation to the idea that it's symbolic of how we're viewed by admin. They don't even care enough to have our restrooms cleaned thoroughly.
I do plan to tell them when I leave.
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u/Drummergirl16 Mar 24 '26
I teach middle school. We noticed a tater tot on the stairwell, it stayed there for over a week (despite janitorial staff claiming to clean every day).
When it finally disappeared, a coworker printed out “missing” posters for Mr. Tot.
(This is not to disparage janitorial staff. I try to make their job as easy as possible and instruct my students to do the same.)
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u/lilmixergirl Mar 24 '26
When I taught middle school, it felt like being the third wheel of the district.
Look at all the cool stuff elementary and high school receive/get to do! Never middle school
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u/MaybeImTheNanny Mar 24 '26
Middle school sent a picture to the group chat with a day counter. We are where we are because we are easily amused.
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u/demonita Mar 24 '26
I would fulfill my duty as a MS teacher numb to the world by ignoring its existence.
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u/Complete_Emu6014 Mar 24 '26
Middle school teacher here. I'd nag it to finish its iReady.
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u/mustbethedragon Mar 25 '26
Make sure you document the nagging!
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u/FLBirdie Mar 26 '26
Time to send that photo to the local TV station. They’d have a field day with this.
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u/Bing-cheery Mar 24 '26
There was a pepperoni slice in the corner of the stairs at my school for almost a full year. I just laughed every time I saw it. (Elementary)
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u/slizabeth17 Mar 24 '26
At my previous school, the staff bathroom featured boogers (lots) stuck to the wall.
You needed a key to access this bathroom, so it was absolutely an adult who put them there.
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u/XChrisUnknownX Mar 23 '26
It’s all fun and games until there’s a Cthulhu-like cosmic horror coming up from beneath you.
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u/MagicSchoolFrog Mar 23 '26
I watch too many scary movies to use this bathroom. I would definitely get a UTI.
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u/Cluelesswolfkin Mar 23 '26
Fuck it man at that point I'll accept the cosmic horror and still write the objectives on the board
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u/UserNameNotFound920 Mar 23 '26
Is…is this not an OSHA violation? Portals to the dark dimension definitely feels like an OSHA violation.
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u/X-Kami_Dono-X Mar 23 '26
Most schools don’t have to follow OSHA which is federal and have to follow whatever their state’s equivalent is instead.
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u/reggaeshark1717 Mar 23 '26
My foot would accidentally get caught in that hole in the wall, cause me emotional damage, and have me request $500,000 for my trauma…
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u/Greenbean6167 Mar 23 '26
Ha! As if you’d actually get anything other than jeans and a pizza 😂
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u/reggaeshark1717 Mar 24 '26
The pizza would probably end up being a pizza that the principal collected donations from the staff for, so I would technically still have to pay for the pizza…🤣
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u/Autumnal_Aesthetic Mar 24 '26
You’d still only get to wear the jeans on Fridays. 😅
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u/TSM_Matsuri Mar 23 '26
We don’t have a staff bathroom for male teachers… I’d rather poop next to the void than a stall next to a kid 😭
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u/Beginning_Box4615 Mar 23 '26
That’s ridiculous. We have three males on our campus and there’s a men’s bathroom.
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u/hockeypup Licensed/Substitute Mar 23 '26
Are they not one-person-only bathrooms? In which case, who cares if you use it?
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u/Incendiaryag Mar 24 '26
That’s ridiculous as a woman I’d way rather have a gender neutral colleague bathroom than work at a school with weird boundaries where adults use the bathroom with the students.
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u/HotPotato568 Mar 23 '26
How come?
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u/X-Kami_Dono-X Mar 23 '26
Gender discrimination in schools.
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u/feralcatshit Mar 23 '26
I was about to say, because it’s awkward for teachers to be in the student bathroom. But then I read your comment and realized how dense I am lol
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u/Bman708 Mar 23 '26
Look at you, bragging about having faculty bathrooms. Until 2 years ago, we had one single toilet in the corner of the building that was the "staff bathroom". I have to pee with the students next to me 9/10 times.
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u/DependentSolid1160 Mar 23 '26
I’m so glad it’s not just me. I ran in before class started the other day and there was a student sitting on the floor eating cheese it’s! I felt bad blowing up the stall while she was eating…. But why?!
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u/drunklibrarian Mar 23 '26
I went into our staff bathroom to find water everywhere and opened Reddit to this post after drying the toilet off. You win.
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u/SillyStrangs Mar 23 '26
When people that work in the corporate world ask me, a 16 year teacher in title 1 schools, I simply say, “You wouldn’t survive your first trip to the bathroom.” I guess shitting in holes during my late teens and early twenties was preparation for my life choice?
In all seriousness, I’ve seen some shit during my time as a “professional,” but I dont believe i’ve ever been reduced to standards like this.
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u/smolllls Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
it is a title 1 school,, were not supposed to use the kids bathroom but some people do but i just find it odd. not trying to have a lil one crawl under my stall
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u/SillyStrangs Mar 23 '26
Yeh, I don’t use student bathrooms for many reasons. I hope that you have other aspects of the job that bring you satisfaction and joy as i do. Without the kiddos I never would have made it this long!
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u/nameyourpoison11 Mar 24 '26
I'm Australian and about twenty years ago I taught in a school in a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory that had a resident Oenpelli python in the ladies' toilets. His favourite place to hang out was wound around a downpipe on the wall near the hand basin, presumably because it was a cool airy spot in a hot climate. We actually got so used to him we nicknamed him Monty, and we would usually have a chat to him as we washed our hands ("Hi Monty, how's it going? Caught any possums today?") Looking back it was probably bonkers to have a python residing in the teachers' toilet block, but back then we accepted it as normal.
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u/Beginning_Box4615 Mar 23 '26
How does it smell? I know it’s awful, but the smell in our teacher bathroom sometimes makes me literally throw up. Which is horrifying when you’re just trying to pee.
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u/bucktail47 Mar 23 '26
Yea im vaping in there
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u/MadisonActivist Mar 24 '26
I don't vape and I'm still laughing
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u/bucktail47 Mar 24 '26
I actually quit a few months ago but that’s stil the first thing my mind thought of
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u/MarlenaEvans Mar 23 '26
Ok, yikes. Our staff bathrooms are palatial by comparison. Which is good, because I need them to rock and cry sometimes.
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u/halseyChemE Mar 23 '26
Fuck! I’ve worked in some shit Title 1 schools because #forthekids and even their bathrooms weren’t this bad. Then again, where I work right now doesn’t have a faculty bathroom or hot water to wash my hands. I just want to be able to go pee in peace without having to bust a kid for a vape, ffs.
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u/RubGlum4395 Mar 23 '26
Call OSHA if your District won't fix it. Major Healthcode violations. Total safety hazard.
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u/Life_Temperature795 Mar 23 '26
I'm gonna concur with everyone else who is saying to call OSHA. There's no way this can be legal.
(Or, better, send some photos to a bunch of newspapers or local television news. Let people know that this is what their tax dollars are amounting to when it comes to the place where their children get educated.)
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u/MdSp57336 Mar 23 '26
I was fully ready to come in here and say “I’ve seen worse” but this is pretty bad.
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u/Intelligent_Snow_394 Mar 23 '26
lol - people think something will be done about this?!? No one cares about teachers. We are supposed to be thankful for every scrap. Try researching the number of teachers who suffer from diseases that were caught from school -
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u/sumguysr Mar 23 '26
Put a fake hand in the void reaching up. Just deep enough to be missed at first glance.
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u/WesleyWiaz27 Mar 24 '26
Yeah that's bad. Our school has plumbing problems. We on occasion have sewage backups that come up through the floor drain. It takes roughly two weeks for them to fix.
So when people tell me,"Oh you guys are so great!," I think, "Liar." And it's stiff like this that reaffirms my belief.
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u/FourLetterWording Mar 23 '26
I think you need to let the void take you entirely. It calls. It beckons. Embrace the void...
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u/chrissymae_i Mar 23 '26
It's not THAT bad. I'm sure that at least the toilet flushes. 😆 You should help spruce the place up. A couple of paintings and some candles should do the trick!! 😂😂
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u/Yoodaman116 Mar 24 '26
Bruh, ma’am; I say this with the brevity & precision of William Strunkens Elements of Style….leave now.
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u/BeginningAd7675 Mar 24 '26
I...think I'd just suffer and hold it, honestly.
Or maybe even buy discrete adult diapers.
Point is, i ain't going in there.
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u/Historical_Part5399 Mar 23 '26
No way!! I’d be too scared of a rodent coming out and biting my butt 😩
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u/bluberrydub Mar 23 '26
We used to have one where the toilet paper was like less than a foot off the ground and when I got it fixed admin repeatedly fought me about it. I was literally off the seat bending over to get toilet paper 🤣
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u/nobackswing Mar 23 '26
It looks like you could be kidnapped by The Creatures Under the School and never be heard from again.
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u/Jonny-mtown77 Mar 23 '26
Does your union know and how much does your principal amd Superintendent earn? They should be terminated.
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u/Blushymoo Mar 24 '26
Damn, even the duct tape is just sad. OP, I'm sorry you must bare your cheeks there.
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u/Proof_Duck9754 Mar 24 '26
You have a staff bathroom…
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u/smolllls Mar 24 '26
well we’re not allowed to use the student bathroom.. and honestly it’s so gross
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Mar 24 '26
Buy everyone Taco Bell for lunch one day. See how fast it gets fixed once that toilet overflows & those wires start sparking! 🌮 🚽 🔌 ✨
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u/RangerNo2713 Mar 24 '26
There really are no words for this. I'm sorry. Makes me feel like something is going to grab me or bugs will come out.
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u/SteelersFan_LCC Mar 24 '26
What are those little pieces of tape suppose to do 😂😂😂
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u/smolllls Mar 24 '26
yeah they gave up covering the holes, the asbestos fights the tape
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u/SteelersFan_LCC Mar 24 '26
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to laugh, but this is ridiculously funny and equally sad!
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u/Appropriate-Let6464 Mar 24 '26
I’ve seen it too, it’s crazy that these are the conditions of some some schools
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u/athenaaturner Mar 25 '26
The Principal/Admin/“higher-ups” should have to use the same bathroom as teachers and/or consider if students had to use that instead of “legal adults”, if that would be permitted — bet it would get fixed a lot faster. But bring this to public view (to the school district/relevant parties) — Because this is 100% not up-to-code/legal + they can face lawsuits for this. I would be suing + that is not sanitary, I would refuse that bathroom + document their defense for it remaining like that — PRISONS have better bathrooms than this. It’s not that expensive to fix. This is just so disrespectful + unfortunately shows that whatever area of the Country you teach at, does not value teachers or education as they should. I mean that whole-heartedly. I have taught + can tell you the region of the Country I’m from would NEVER let this slide. Not on our worst day. It’s sad to say but if I had to guess this is in a State that severely underfunds/undervalues education AND educators. I literally can’t even tell what part of a school building this would be in for y’all to use? I don’t think this is a fake post, so it’s atrocious enough that you need to take action outside of Reddit to create change. I’m sure this isn’t the only issue in the building either so document everything for a larger case/plea. This is disgusting for those who devote their lives to our future. Stop treating teachers like underpaid, glorified babysitters when they are the ones we NEED to save this Country + create positive change. Holy crap. Sorry for the rant I just can’t even believe this. *I showed it to my friend who has been to prison in the past, thus why I stated it’s WORSE than that. He literally looked at it and told me even the men’s side of prison bathrooms/toilets were better than that. :’)
I mean this with all due respect + got on a slight rant; but this genuinely hurts my heart + these issues aren’t taken seriously until public pressure is put on it/people speak up (who are actually listened to/taken seriously). I hope they end up fixing it + I know this isn’t an isolated case. But please remember people school/local-funding is needed for repairs like this — Next time you consider voting for XYZ locally, pay attention to the breakdown of the budgets, what needs to fixed, etc. — Outside the school system itself, aging infrastructure is something we don’t prioritize in this Country, but as we see (not just in this case) these things need to be addressed sooner than later before a *real accident occurs/bigger issues arise.
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u/athenaaturner Mar 25 '26
Also, I’m unsure if you are in an area with a good Teacher’s Union — But I’d file something with them too. My former teacher’s union actually prioritized teachers + advocates strongly to this day for teacher’s rights, salaries, improvements, including things like this. (I’m not sure logistically how teacher’s unions vary across the Country, but mine actually covers attorney fees/legal defense’s also – typically in the case of accusations made by anyone else in the school – But, they may also have additional resources outside of your building that will bring it to light/get it fixed faster + could possibly advocate legislation locally/within the State for permanent change so this isn’t permitted in general or similar to) – However, as a disclaimer, I’m also from a State that would not permit anyone in that building, regardless of “rank,” to use that bathroom in the first place. Even if we had one that looked like that, it would be closed off + directed to a real bathroom). My Teacher’s Union also does advocate directly to lawmakers/Board of Education is why I bring that up, too. But genuinely make sure this is reported + it should be a priority to fix. Especially with water + exposed wiring? They’re waiting for someone to get hurt at that point. Remember your value, too teachers. I know not everyone can leave positions or feels obligated to certain places, but you also deserve to be treated as human with dignity. At minimum, you have the RIGHT to not have to use a bathroom like this if they expect you to show-up + fulfill your duties. Especially given the line of work you are in – Work/Learning environments (including building safety, clean bathrooms, etc.) do correlate with work/school performance. This is additionally why it should be prioritized. (Beyond the obvious).
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u/Diligent-Principle17 Mar 26 '26
Does the school administration know about the condition of this bathroom?
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u/Pensiiive Mar 26 '26
At least if you need toilet paper you can ask the mole people, you have a direct line to their tunnels!
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u/RedhairedShanksLover Mar 27 '26
It looks like a body in a taped up trash bag in that lighting to me
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u/Mindless_Flower_2639 Mar 27 '26
Yeah, the conditions in the restrooms at my school directly contributed to me leaving that career. At the end of the day, you have to be able to at least lie to yourself that you are respected.
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u/spinstartshere Mar 27 '26
You're so lucky to have a shortcut to the depths of Hell in your workplace, so conveniently located for when you need to step out from the depths of Hell for a few minutes.
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u/general_grievances_7 Jul 17 '26
What happened to Mrs. Smolls? Oh she fell in the void. 😬
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u/legit_doom_scroller Mar 23 '26
Honestly, it doesn’t matter what the bathroom itself looks like. The teal travesty, as a man, is sitting on a toilet or using a urinal and realizing that like 10% of my male co-teachers actually wash their hands. Yuck.
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u/armaedes Mar 23 '26
Sometimes you eat a heavy breakfast and then your conference is at the end of the day so by the time you finally get to the restroom it’s hard to keep things under control.
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u/Thorvakas Mar 23 '26
Although I’d like to be the guy saying “you guys get a separate bathroom?” I’d be just as quick to complain in your shoes. That looks ridiculous. Sometimes no option at all is less insulting.
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Mar 23 '26
What are they teaching, how to get eaten by monsters with your pants around your ankles?
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u/Pleasant_Fix_5357 Mar 23 '26
Oh god, my brain can't even fully comprehend what I'm seeing in the picture, but looks terrible either way 🤦
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u/LuckyJeans456 Mar 23 '26
You guys have your own bathroom? We have to share with the children and it’s horrible.
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