Unisex toilets in Secondary School

did i kill the thread?

as a muslim my objection would be the girls needing a space to fix their headscarfs when they come loose and a place to beable to perform ritual ablutions which requires them to take their scarf of and wipe over their head so they wouldnt beable to do that in order to pray at luchtimes if handbasins were in communal areas.

Nyac, it is less likely to happen because they are far more open and suspicious behaviour more noticeable from outside.

Nyac Are you serious? Do you intend to keep all girls away from boys for ever in situations where they might be together then? Like on the beach, or in the swimming pool or Scout camp?

I think you're being a bit ridiculous tbh.

I don't really understand why people are ignoring sexually criminal behaviour in the design of these toilets. It's very odd.

no thankyou. When the local swimming pool had unisex loos/changing areas there was incident after incident of boys peering under doors at girls.
No to unisex loos (including disabled ones)

My DD attends the school in question and is a bit wary of this toilet issue! There has been no consultation - the leadership tend to be a bit control freakish. We haven't seen any particular details of the new building so far but hopefully the layout will be one that has worked well in the new builds that posters have mentioned; I think a lot depends also on how it is policed by staff tbh. In two visits to Westfield this week we have seen boys from the school being thrown out of shops or the cinema for being disruptive pests. There are a lot of kids who are very well behaved but unfortunately there always seems to be a minority who behave very badly. If there is any opportunity for silly little boys to harass and annoy girls, I think they will find it! DD has also seen homophobic bullying going on. I am sure the school have thought it through; they are generally on the ball when it comes to managing behaviour - at least in the school building itself.

I would have presumed Nyac that due to the 'openness' of unisex toilets and the fact that in new builds there is less likely to be an outer door to the washing basins etc it is ensuring that more staff are visible to what goes on (never worked in a new build, but from what I have gathered from colleagues that do that this is one of the main areas where bullying has been reduced)

I'm really interested to know how giving pervy boys or would be rapist boys (obviously a tiny minority but they do exist) more access to girls when they are vulnerable would reduce sexual assaults or harassment.

Yes there is a spelling mistake in my last post, one that really annoys me when I see others making the same mistake.

"I think any school wishing to have unisex toilets should canvas the children as to whether they want them." In theory, bevelino, I think that sounds like a good idea.

But then, many of the pupils who express an opinion will have left by the time they are built. I also wonder whether people's Yuk! reaction is due to how they perceive this might work, rather than the reality. Another reality is that kids love to moan about thier school (almost as much as teachers )

Having read through this thread it seems that most people who have worked in schools that have unisex loos think they are ok.

I second the view of a previous posted who questioned how many of the posters on this thread cope on a long haul flight.

We have a new build and ours are unisex. They are all to one side of a corridor near either a faculty office or Year Office. There are 2 cubicles for boys, 2 for girls, a disabled toilet and a communal handbasin area. The 'cubicles' have full-length brick walls and full-length doors. The only concern I have heard voiced is that you can hear through the door but that would be the same in unisex toilets as well. I wouldn't have thought it would ever be quiet enough at breaktime to hear anything myself!

I think any school wishing to have unisex toilets should canvas the children as to whether they want them.

I started my period in the middle of a school day. Completely flooded, the blood was even on my ankle socks . Luckily there was two older girls in the toilet who sorted me out, even down to washing my socks off for me and drying them under the hand dryer,bless them.

I would have died off if boys had have been in there.

Awful, awful idea.

Stealth, by cubicles with sinks in I meant the totally enclosed type that disabled loos are often like - proper rooms as opposed to cubicles with gaps above and below sides/doors, IYSWIM? They're more soundproof and it's also much easier to wash blood etc off your hands discreetly if you've been dealing with a tampon or something.

How do all these horrified people cope on long haul flights

I agree entirely that you need separate ones, but I will mark this thread as a link next time women are insisting on taking their DSs in the ladies and the girls just have to lump it-or they are insisting everywhere should have unisex loos.
Obviously girls are bothered.

And as others have said general hygiene is important - boys can be really messy and foul in toilets. I would hate using a unisex toilet so can only imagine the horror of having to use one as a teenager.

How would these loos be "policed" by staff - which gender of staff could be sent in without "risk" of accusations of some sort of perverted behaviour (there will be some kid who will try this on).

Awful, awful idea. Think teen boy + mobile phone + girl in next cubicle = too tempting to resist. I know a grown man who took a video on his phone in unisex swimming pool changing rooms / toilets because a teenage girl was in next door. He was an adult who couldn't resist a moment of stupidity. Imagine the self-control of the average teenage boy.

as horrendous as your experience is lovebunny - wouldn't unisex toilets help to combat anything like that happening in the future?

one of my first-term experiences as a secondary school teacher was to be called to a boys toilet by a girl in tears as her friend had been dragged in and was being gang raped.

unisex toilets do not work for me.

yuck it sounds horrendous. I would hate it and agree with most of the reasons outlined here.

boys are revolting and sometimes pee on seats and don't flush the loo. This happens in my household and it could be my DS or DH.

TBH, this noise of a wrapper being opened thing, isn't an issue. The toilets are used at break times and lunch times. There are approx 300 kids, all milling around, waiting to use the loos, or chatting. 300 kids make a lot of noise!

Too much noise to hear a wrapper being opened and frankly too much giggling and catching up with the gossip to care what someone is doing in the toilet!