Georgia 2nd-grade teacher creates ‘gas station’ to keep students in seats: ‘Spray the air freshener, and come back’

A Georgia second-grade teacher has gone viral on TikTok after creating a classroom “gas station” where students can quietly step away from instruction to pass gas without leaving the room or interrupting the lesson. Candy Sydney-Browning, an Atlanta teacher who posts on TikTok as @chokola___, calls the designated corner her classroom’s “gusty winds area.” The space includes an air freshener, and students do not need to raise their hands or ask permission before using it.

In one video, Sydney-Browning gave viewers a tour of her classroom and explained how the system works. She pointed out the area where students sit on the rug during instruction, then showed the route to the corner marked by a small yellow sign.

Students can get up, excuse themselves, and walk to the designated area when necessary. Sydney-Browning said she keeps air freshener nearby, although she does not require students to use it.

She explained that she sprays the classroom regularly anyway.

The system, she said, allows her to keep teaching without pausing to answer permission requests. “While I’m teaching, no one has to ask,” Sydney-Browning said in the video. “I don’t have to stop teaching in order to say yes. You can go.”

“Kids were asking to go to the bathroom constantly, and half the time, it wasn’t even necessary. They were missing instruction. Now they don’t have to miss anything,” she told NBC.

Sydney-Browning said her arrangement has become routine for her students. “They just quietly get up, go to the corner, do what they need to do, spray the air freshener, and come back. No one laughs, no one says anything. It’s just normal now,” she said. Sydney-Browning’s creative solution comes just one year after a South Carolina school traced a pervasive “poop smell” to a teacher aide.

Sydney-Browning’s videos are part of a viral TikTok series in which she has documented the “gas station” and explained why she created it. She said in one post that she had used a similar setup while teaching first grade and brought it back after moving up with many of the same students to second grade.

Her TikTok videos also show the sign for the “gusty winds area” and the air freshener she keeps nearby. In one earlier video, a student asked where the “gas station” would be in the new classroom, prompting Sydney-Browning to create a new designated area for the school year.

Sydney-Browning says parents are supportive.

Reactions to Sydney-Browning’s classroom setup have been mixed. According to NBC, some viewers praised the idea as a way to normalize a bodily function without disrupting class. Others questioned whether students would feel embarrassed or whether frequent use could lead to teasing.

Teachers also joined the discussion, with one middle school teacher saying their classroom had a designated “fart closet” and another writing that they planned to adopt the idea for eighth grade. Sydney-Browning said her own students have grown accustomed to the routine, and she told NBC that students’ parents have been supportive.

In other fart news, a Colombian movie theater recently evacuated a Spider-Man: Brand New Day screening over a powerful fart smell. Maybe that theater needs to borrow Sydney-Browning’s idea.