Ireland will no longer be providing single sex toilets in primary and secondary schools!!!

This makes me want to waltz into the men's toilets at the Dept of Education, take off my skirt to scrub a menstrual blood stain and rinse out a moon cup as I stand there in my knickers.

Perhaps we need to take care of all of our menstrual needs in full view of the men (gotta be menz, right) who are making these decisions to remove single sex spaces.

Make them feel uncomfortable. Because these toilet arrangements will certainly make our girls uncomfortable.

Is this to make the girls be human shields to stop boys bullying each other in the toilets?

This is also asking for an epidemic of constipation as they all hold it in all day. Perhaps also toxic shock as girls might not want to rustle with tampon packaging etc.

I feel so angry! What's the betting the boys end up using one side and the girls the other, probably the one with less cubicles. Besides the lack of dignity and privacy it just seems to be a very inefficient use of space. The girls should all boycott and queue for the unisex unit and be late for classes.

It was my understanding that Muslim males can't share a toilet space like this and vice versa for Muslim women, but I am just going on what I saw on SAS who dares win where the Muslim man had to give up when he just arrived because his religion prevented him from sharing toilets with the females. I'm not Muslim so if someone could set me right it would be appreciated. Also as another poster pointed out adjusting hijabs.

However, both now, and most especially as a teenage girl, I would have a huge problem identifying my menstrual cycle needs in front of others, and especially in front of my male peers in my mixed school.

Unless you have been a very fortunate girl/woman, you will be very aware of how teenage boys refer to menstruation; the fun they have stick tampons to ceilings, quiet musings at the back of the class as to whether such-and-such a girl is "on the blob". Whether the female teacher who is correcting them, is experiencing PMT etc etc.

[quote XXSex]@FionaMacCool no consideration has been given for the placement of a dispenser to purchase period products.[/quote]
No, there hasn't- that's because they are considered to be "loose fittings" (see point 34, p12 of the document).
It's interesting that the "mock-up" digrams have no such dispensers.

" To reduce the risk of contact with potentially soiled surfaces and to reduce the risk of viral or bacteriological contamination, the use of electronic activation of taps and WC flush valves should be considered, using systems which are battery independent if possible ".
Interesting that women touching sanitary towel bins, are somehow immune to cross-contamination (sarcasm, for the slow thinking).

WRT door openings, it has long been practice that inward opening doors, have provision for easy opening from outside, in case of emergency. That is included in the design brief.
Though the monthly needs of girls and women hasn't been- interesting isn't it?

I can actually see how being open plan would reduce bullying and other anti social behaviour. But where is the allowance for the extra privacy girls (or indeed boys) may need? If the washbasin area is open plan then any girl washing blood off of her hands or rinsing a moon cup is potentially doing it in front of all other school students. If a girl needs to adjust her hijab she has no privacy to do so. Any child, of either sex, who just wants a cry in private now potentially has more of an audience.

The suggested layout has the walls/doors painted blue/pink suggesting to me they assume males and females want to be separated!
The design with the cubicles back-to-back looks the better choice. And with COVID you'd think the ideal would be a one way system.
Unless you think your demographic is going to change I don't understand why they want to get rid of urinals - surely these are better use of space and resources.

Here's a couple of (proper) feminist groups in Ireland who might be able to help tackle this BS

thecountessdidntfightforthis.com/about-us/

irishwomenslobby.ie/

fever = gender

I cannot emphasis enough how this is completely flying under the radar in the wokiest of wokiest of countries on the planet. The real problem here is that really girls and women have a legacy of being treated appallingly in Ireland and it is in the main a structure as held in place by women (if not more so) as men so there are so few voices opposing the changes. I really despair how immature Ireland is. This is like the Celtic Tiger but for fever ideology instead of money.

Having rescued 2 people from behind toilet doors having seizures, there’s going to be a lot going on behind the doors people can’t see. There is a gap underneath doors for a reason.

fuch

But why can't that be done in a.single sex area?

I've actually checked out a school (North East England) that had this type of toilets in use and it actually DID reduce bullying.

With the sinks being open plan and in plain view of everyone passing by this will eliminate many of the opportunities for harassment and bullying

I see nothing wrong with washing my hands in front of other people

So on the one hand you have this

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/27/how-schoolgirls-finally-found-voice-to-tell-of-sexual-abuse

And then on the other ROI is taking away one of the obvious ways to ensure girls have a safe space to escape from sexual assault in schools.

In order to validate a tiny, tiny minority.

Fucks sake.

I never understand how bullying is supoosed to be improved. I mean you have double the number of kids using the space if anything it gets worse surely?

And all the staff who suddenly aolear to supervised mix sex areas to stop bullying, where were they when it was single sex?

What do they do that can't be done in single sex areas ?

Am i looking at the plans incorrectly or is the area in which the sinks are placed completely open to the corridors or whatever communal area is outside?

I think the closing the door when peeing should be a problem that we can solve among kids - my boys would be absolutely scandalised by the thought of other people seeing them peeing (even other boys TBH), so it's just a matter of making it unacceptable to pee without the door shut, and primary school seems like a place we can make that happen.

I'm surprised that schools are prepared to pay out so much for a bin in every cubicle - which they absolutely should.

No1:- the close proximity of a (not always clean) sanitary bin; that is so annoying for all users.
no.2:- if you need sanitary protection, can you imagine being a 13year old girl, and getting supplies from a dispenser in the common area, before going into one of those loos (either Primary or Secondary).
No. 3- boys- will they be taught to close the door while peeing?
No.4 :- really really quite eeuuuch to think about, but havent we seen instances where the contents of said bins have been used in v v v unsavoury ways.

I note that as usual, they've centred the toilet in the cubicle so the sanitary bin is pressed right up against one side of the toilet....

It's such a basic, and easy thing to fix, and they still can't bloody do it.

My experience of (admittedly smaller sized, and admittedly only a small sample) Irish primaries is that they're more likely to be purpose built - my children's primary has a single user, accessible toilet in each classroom, and no communal ones at all (pre-covid, a desperate parent was allowed to nip into the teachers toilet). And this was also the case in another two that I visited when looking for my children.

I don't have any experience of secondaries yet - but since I'm looking at sending my son to a boarding school as a day pupil, this is something that will soon strike very close to home.

The problem is, our Equal Status Acts mention gender, not sex -

The Equal Status Acts 2000-2018 (‘the Acts’) prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods and services, accommodation and education. They cover the nine grounds of gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, and membership of the Traveller community.

Pretty much all of our equality legislation mentions gender instead of sex, which makes it pretty much meaningless if people can identify into whatever gender they please.