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

I see the claim is now being made that the proposals were never to get rid of single sex toilets but to provide gender neutral ones alongside them. Which of course hardly anyone would object to. But the plans shared in the OP certainly look like mixed sex only. What is the truth of this? (See Noah Halpin thread on Twitter this morning)

twitter.com/VCurrentAffairs/status/1385227345930424327?s=20
Why do a certain side of this debate always resort to name-calling

Just did a search and it’s been covered by so many journalists today. And it seems that it’s overwhelmingly supportive of maintaining sex segregated spaces and a spar separate mixed sex area.

Jesusmaryandjoseph...the very idea 😂😂

I think it was the mentioning of students having sex with each other that was the end of him!

Laoise is brilliant, isn't she? Joe got a bit over excited though 😂

Boxty - I listened back to that. Very sensible until it descended into screaming by the women calling on. Well done to that Laoise one who kept her cool and got her points across.
What on earth are the department thinking?

On Joe Duffy now

The first person I rescued was in a nightclub toilet and my friend climbed over and got her out and got her semi conscious, choking on vomit, before the ambulance arrived.

The Epileptic Society would not like these toilets. Children can go months without having a seizure or one can happen out of the blue for the first time - if children are feeling ill they would go to the toilet. If left too long in a seizure they get irreversible brain damage. 1 in a hundred people have a fit at some time.

On a lighter note, surely the whole pink and blue door thing defeats the object anyway. Pink for girls, blue for boys and what colour for those who don’t want to/feel like they conform? There maybe peer pressure there too in a more public choice way.

Not really. I have done the ‘sweep’ as a teacher on fire drills. Ifs there a locked door I wouldn’t want to leave it. At least with doors with gaps you can see very quickly if there’s anyone there. And if there is drag them out.

I have rescued an unconscious person after seeing a leg poking out of a cubicle and also someone having a fit on the toilet floor. Both incidences stayed in my mind.

Just thought of another one. Fire drills. What happens if there’s a fire and a toilet door is locked? Usually (with a gap) you can do a quick sweep to see if there’s someone in there quickly. The toilet locks are also often quick-opening from the outside (though they won’t be in these cases).

Sorry might be too late to comment on your list - I think that you missed out the risk that it increases the risk that girls might be raped. I really do think its as simple as that.

To me its a simple question - there is (laudbly) increasing talk of the sexual harrassment that girls in school are forced to suffer. Does the HT think that having mixed sex toilets will increase or decrease the incidence of the sexual harrasment of girls?

And - given that the BLEEDINGLY OBVIOUS ANSWER IS INCREASE - why does this not matter.

At the risk of completely outing myself I'm going to recall a phone conversation I had with my daughters school, in Ireland. It was 5 years ago. She was in 2nd year ( 14 yr olds for non Irish readers) and a boy started who was 16. He was in the year groups core classes Irish English Maths Religion and PE. He started off saying sexual things to the girls, staring at them, commenting on their bodies. The girls went to their year head and complained about him. I and the other girls parents all got a phone call. The school had listened to the girls but the boy had (their words) social problems and had to learn how to be appropriate around girls, they had a duty of care to him. I asked why they were using the girls as unconsenting learning tools and where was their duty of care to girls not to be subject to sexual harassment. There was dithering and muttering and audible disbelief that I pointed out what was happening.
He was moved to another class with a permanent SNA assigned to him.
The girls would use the toilets to get away from him. It fills me with ice to think of what could have happened had the toilets been mixed sex. He was a big lad, tall and broad. The girls wouldn't have stood a chance .

So angry about this.

Girls toilets, boys toilets, unisex toilets, accesible toilets - win win for all.

Anyone who doesn't see a problem is blind. I hate shared space toilet - as an adult I don't feel comfortable washing my bloody hands or moon cup in front of men. I feel unsafe in those toilets too. Sexual assault happens everywhere.

Girls will suffer so much. I remember the days of embarrassment, needing to rush to the toilets with heavy periods at 11. I would have hated to have boys in there listening to my every move, rustle etc.

World wide then Lord? My horror at this has been made even worse by the fact that the UN and many other charities recognise that safety for women is improved with good toilet facilities so why would the developed world decide to take steps backwards? Perhaps we've just climbed too high on the equality ladder and need to be brought to heel. So, mixed sex schools to benefit boys (they are better behaved apparently) and mixed sex loos so they learn better habits. Misogyny is definitely the right word

How soon before teachers stop policing? They'll say that there aren't any problems so we don't need to continue. I really, really want to scream.
We have to be shouting loud, this is too important and when the awful consequences start happening, something else will be blamed - probably women

everyoneinvited has hundreds of stories from girls basically saying 'we didnt bother telling any of the teachers about the harrassment/assault/rape because they wouldnt listen to us and even if they did, the boy wouldnt be punished anyway'

Girls learn very very quickly that its much easier to just get girls to put up and shut up than it is to deal with bad behaviour form boys. They are trained as support humans from a very young age

I do wonder how many of the schools who say no girls complained really mean 'we didnt ask the girls what they thought in private'

And so far no issues have come up

This sort of thing is said all the time, and it's nonsense. Girls modify their own behaviour, because they have absolutely no hope of modifying the school's behaviour, and this is classified as "no issues have come up".

Never mind the girls who just don't go to those schools, because their parents won't allow them in a school which only has mixed-sex facilities.

It is not okay to further disadvantage the oppressed class (girls) in order to further benefit boys.