AIBU to think this toilet design is madness in a secondary school!

[Tailtwister]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-22891134

Male/female open plan toilets in a secondary school! AIBU to think this is a crazy design? I could be wrong, but it looks like a recipe for disaster to me.

I have worked in several schools with similar toilets. They reduce bullying in the loos and mean kids can't hide there during lessons. They also make them very easy to police. Thus reducing vandalism

So IMO you are being unreasonable

Really eltshT? Well in that case IABU. I just thought it would be a nightmare from a privacy point of view, but if it works to reduce bullying then it is a good thing.

I think they are good. You don't have to go through a door to get to them, so the dc can't hang about in there as there is no amperage room.

I hate going into the toilets in schools as it makes you feel a bit seedy somehow.

I think they sound like a brilliant idea, I hated the toilets at school. Girls and boys aren't a different species.

Never seen this before, it looks like a great idea. I hate the fact that if pupils disappear off to the toilet and are of opposite sex they have evaded you! Plus they are often used for hiding in during lessons and bullying.

I clicked on that thinking open plan meant no cubicles. I often dream about busting for a wee, and the cubicles are open plan or shared!

Looks like a good idea to me tbh, the school toilets were never a good place when I was at high school - full of cliques and intimidation.
This might stop them become territorial.

I don't mind the open plan aspect, but would be uncomfortable with unisex loos especially as a teenager.

I guess it would also stop smoking in toilets which seemed to be the #1 activity wgen I was at school. Someone even started a fire in a bin once by accident, and the toilets always stank of smoke and were horrible places.

We have had them toilets in new builds across Merseyside for about five years.

The toilets don't cause problems, as such, but the open plan design does.

Teachers have lost control of the school many times and have to phone the police, whilst locking themselves in the staff room. With no adults present attacks have then happened.

The open plan design means that it is eaier to access the fire alarms, without being seen or stopped. Mant schools have had to put people on fire alarm guard and have some CTTV installed.

Th eoffence for tampering with a fire alarm comes under the "prevention of terrorism" Act, this is the offence the teens are charged with.

There have been many a parent who has then been devastated when they realise that it can mean cancelling that years holiday, you cannot enter the US for five years.

The colour scheme has had to be changed from the original design, it wasa nightmare for any SN pupils, or anyone affected by colour.

There were many aspects of the design that made you wonder if those that came up with it had ever had contact with human children, tbh.

bog standard

The law also states that toilet areas for male and female pupils over the age of 8 must be separate. separate

.www.bog-standard.org/factsheet_016.aspx

It will also make it very difficult for children who are from cultures where sharing facilities is unacceptable.

Moominsarehippos wishes her work places had separate loos

www.bog-standard.org/factsheet_016.aspx

sorry her the link.

The only thing i can think of is that i remember the thought of someone overhearing you unwrap a sanitary towel was excruciating. But if the toilets were in a busy area then noise ought not to be an issue (we used to recruit a friend to strategically use the hand drier to provide cover noise!)

here

one handed typing.

Oh i'm not sure, don't you all remember the utter stink coming from the boys toilets at secondary?

Omg the teachers had to lock themselves in the staff room that's mental

I would have absolutely hated this as a teenager, and would hate it now. Seriously. I can't even imagine who thought this was a good idea (a bloke, probably), and as a parent council member I would fight tooth and nail to stop it if anyone ever suggested it for my DCs High School.

The open plan aspect also means that you can see into every room, including those doing Gym.

It doesn't stop intimidation, with is mainly mental/emotional.

I have used this type of school to do evening classes and as a confident adult wasn't comfy with the lay out.

One of these new builds has just had to close, the standards have fallen to an extent that nothing will improve them.

In some "rough" areas, the design doesn't work well, but these are the areas that are getting them, because of the what funding has to be obtained.

"It will also make it very difficult for children who are from cultures where sharing facilities is unacceptable."

That isn't a problem, because there are plenty of toilets for anyone with a disability.

The one good thing about them, is that they are fully accessable.

They are not working in many areas and that is being covered up.

We needed armed police at one such incident, but that never reached the news .

I'm not sure it's such a fantastic idea tbh. I think girls need some privacy, boys can be very cruel about things like periods.

I think it will bring up a lot of problems, along with girls feeling uncomfortable.

My daughter's school has this type of loos. They are a fairly recent replacement to the utterly grim old fashioned toilets it used to have. The children had been concerned at the 'unisex' angle, but once they were in, they quickly preferred them.

There is more than enough privacy with individual cubicles. Why shouldn't boys and girls can observe each other hand washing, for goodness sake? The open plan design prevents bullying and vandalism and the toilets stay pleasant for all to use.

In my daughter and her friends (15-16 year old girls0 view, they are a good thing.

my dd would be mortified if a boy saw her go in a cubicle, then subsequently heard the rustling of a sanitary towel packaging.

As someone said it would be ok if the loos were busy tho. Yet sometimes dealing with periods can be messy, and you want at a younger age to get sharpish to the taps iyswim.

I would find it embarrassing having to open a sanitary towel in the cubicle knowing there might be a boy using a toilet opposite. I can understand how the open plan will stop pupils skipping classes.

I can imagine the sanitary towel embarrassment, now that Yoni has mentioned it, and I remember at school some girls teaching other girls how to use tampons (coaching through the cubicle door!). I may have to rethink my views...

Also, having the whole school open plan is not a good idea IMO, not only can it easily be taken over by pupils (whereas in a traditional school you can remove a disruptive child and put them elsewhere more easily), but also as humans we have evolved to need nooks and closed areas for security, I'm not surprised that people feel very uncomfortable in such places and probably more on edge and defensive.

It's not clear whether there are doors on the cubicles or not? If there are, I don't understand the sanitary towel embarrassment problem.