At California’s Fresno High, a new app is authorizing and monitoring trips to the bathroom in an effort to increase students’ time in class and decrease gathering in halls and bathrooms. Of course, this has not gone over well with students.

Raising your hand and asking the teacher if you can go to the bathroom is so old school.

Today, students at several local middle and high schools request bathroom privileges by entering their student ID number into an app. If fewer than 25 students throughout the school are already on bathroom breaks, a green light appears on the mobile device and the student is excused.

Fresno High mandates that students with smartphones download the free app developed by a company called 5 Star Students. In addition to bathroom breaks, the app also facilitates student attendance and the recording of tardies.

The student flashes the green screen to the teacher and has seven minutes to use the bathroom and return to class. The green light also enables the anxious student to pass by hall monitors.

Upon returning to class, the ID is again entered into the app to stop the timer. If the seven minute limit is exceeded, the student’s future bathroom privileges could be revoked.

As long as they follow the rules and meet the timelines, each student gets two seven-minute breaks per day.

While this may sound a bit Draconian, the intent is not to monitor frequent ‘pee-er’s.’

It is a safety mechanism to restrict students from congregating during class time and know who is out of class in the event of an incident.

It is really a modern version of a hall pass. The app tracks time out of class, but it does not collect location data.

Fresno High mandates that students with smartphones download the free app developed by a company called 5 Star Students. In addition to bathroom breaks, the app also facilitates student attendance and the recording of tardies.

Students without mobile devices use traditional manual processes.

In a written response to the Fresno Bee, the school districts communication department said, the app has been “useful in tracking student engagements with activities and clubs, as well as the hall pass element, which reduced the number of students roaming hallways or congregating in bathrooms during instructional time.”