I can't even look at school as not being a prison. It's one of the only places I've had the displeasure to be denied basic rights such as going to use a toilet.
aka "this is why we can't have nice things", juvenile edition :)
Sugar = good is no longer an appropriate heuristic given the change in nutritional availability - in fact it is now harmful - so we force kids to behave differently.
It's not clear that school is similar. Is it not the case that people learn better when they are adequately stimulated and engaged? Even if not, how far should we go in making kids miserable to force them to learn more? Do we need to make them miserable or is there an alternative? This is what I mean by asking why, and it's not clear to me what all the answers are (it's a very complex question).
I have literally ZERO sympathy for any teacher who has shitty (haha) bathroom policies.
Stopping making a big deal out of it will remove the disruption factor. If you can just get up and leave and nobody pays attention the act will quickly lose its effect.
> to get out of class
This suggests there's a bigger problem there if people are so desperate to get out as to fake a bathroom break, but anyway, why not let them? What's the harm? If these people are bored/disgruntled/etc then you already lost the game and no amount of force or coercion will change their mind.
This is why we can't have streets... ?!?
Jokes aside, you just provided a very good example of the prison mindset:
Instead of trying to understand the "problem" of students going too often to the bathroom, the default choice is to make the behavior prohibited.