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NORTH OGDEN, Utah (AP) -- Students at Weber High School want to use the restroom. Alone.
The teens are circulating petitions because school administrators have canceled hall passes except for emergencies. The new rules are restricting restroom trips during class and in some cases teachers are escorting students to the bathroom.
"It's like we're a little 2-year-old, having a teacher follow us around," said Crystal Jones, 17.
"It's like a prison," said Clint Hartmann, 17.
The crackdown came after an off-campus fight last month, which resulted in rumors of potential violence at the school.
The fight occurred at a park near the high school on Nov. 1. When police arrived everyone had scattered, but some students reported to police there were between 50 and 100 students there.
Until the fight, the school generally issued hall passes to those students who needed them.
"We take this very seriously. We took precautions," said Weber High Principal Alan Stokes.
He said there have been no fights or incidents of violence since he restricted hall passes. Further, there has been a significant decrease in vandalism and theft.
Students have collected several hundred signatures so far and plan to present their grievances to the administration in early January.
Weber High has about 1,800 students.
------ Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
