Is it legal for a teacher to deny a child access to a toilet?

[NotTheMrMenAgain]

I have a friend whose DC, age 13, recently soiled themselves in class because the teacher repeatedly refused to allow them to go to the toilet (and were fairly dismissive about it, by the sound of it). It wasn't a small mishap - the rest of the class were dismissed and my friend called to collect DC.
Understandably, DC is mortified and horrified and my friend very upset and angry. There's been a verbal apology from the head of year to my friend, who said how upset the teacher involved was - but no apology from the teacher to the DC - the teacher had since ignored the child/incident.
AIBU to think this simply isn't good enough? My heart goes out to the poor kid, who knows what kind of mark it will leave and what sort of bullying/mockery it will set them up for.
Is it against a child's basic rights to deny them access to a toilet? It seems like cruelty to me. It this a common policy at secondary school? Apparently they aren't allowed to pop to the loo in between classes, only at break/lunch. When I was a teenager my periods were heavy and I wouldn't have made it til break without an accident!

Gosh, techteach. I guess you've never had a sudden attack of diarrhoea that comes on with little to no warning, then? You lucky thing. It's not something you'd have a doctors note for because it's an acute, short-lived illness that can, and does, happen to anyone. And no, it doesn't allow you to hold it in for an hour and 40 mins.

I'm absolutely with you that teenagers should be able to manage their usual toilet habits around lessons. But it was a sudden attack of diarrhoea that caused the incident that started this thread. Not a vague sense of bladder pressure that could wait until break time.

I appreciate that it can be difficult to tell if a child is just a good actor, or having a genuine emergency. But failing to acknowledge that such emergencies even exist is just asking for a messy and traumatic disaster sooner or later. You've been lucky so far.

That's awful ChangelingToday

Using the toilet is what playtime and lunchtime is for. I would never deny a primary school child permission to go toilet whether it was lesson time or not.

Your son's school sounds pretty unusual, sock if there is a keyworker available in the class to follow kids around

There are only 4-6 kids in each class and all kids have either 2 or 1 adult/s for sole direct support.

Your son's school sounds pretty unusual, sock if there is a keyworker available in the class to follow kids around

There are only 4-6 kids in each class and all kids have either 2 or 1 adult/s for sole direct support.

I'm wondering why, if it's so important to have a toilet immediately accessible, how any teenager manages to go in a car, a country walk, bus to school, or even on a theme park ride.
There aren't loads of teenagers sitting by the roadside having been caught short generally, which suggests to me it's not a huge problem.

I would have sent the child the op is referring to, to the medical room with a note if he explained he was feeling poorly.

In my class exceptions would be made for illness and medical conditions but other than they should be able to wait.

Oh and alledgedly this school only takes kids with the most severe behaviour problems and has them from around the entire uk so we are not even talking nicely behaved kids.

Ds old school the toilets were locked and only opened at break and lunch.

At break the caretaker walked Round the school, opening them one by one and never managed to get them all opened in the time.

Children were not permitted in the toilets before school which meant children who had a long bus journey to school often didn't get to go until lunch time.

Ds had kidney issues and we eventually got him a toilet pass but he had to take that to the secretary at the office, who issued him a key for one toilet.

It's inhumane in this day and age.

There were girls at the school denied permission to go to the toilet when on their periods and they bled through onto seats and left stains on skirts.

One girl age 14 in wet herself because she was denied permission to go to the toilet.

University, that sounds horrific and scares me for when my DC are secondary age.

What on earth is the answer?

I don't know but I had no idea it was such an endemic problem.

Before and after school - not allowed. Toilets locked. Some children had bus journey of 90 mins and were not allowed to visit toilet before class.

Break time - one caretaker unlocked all toilets walking round the school. Often toilets not all unlocked as caretaker didn't make it round the school (big site)

Lunchtime - again, caretaker unlocked toilets as he walked around the school.

Girls were not allowed out to go to the toilet even if on their period. Answer of school when challenged on this was that girls should tell teacher they were on their period and it would be permitted. (As if a young girl is going to tell a male teacher in a mixed class that she is on her period)

It's completely inhumane.

I don't know if you've seen the film - I can't remember the name of it but it was about the African American ladies who were doing calculations for the space programme? There's a scene where the women have to go half a mile to go to the loo because there's coloured and white toilets and that's where the nearest coloured persons loo is?

DS and I were watching that and he said that was what it was like for him.

Big school. Massive site. And a child with recurrent kidney infections who had to go NOW had to go a route march to the office to get a key and then go down the corridor to the loo.

TA here - it's a tricky situation. I work in primary so it's different but it's true what many have said. The children who genuinely want to go will ask twice and are willing to make up the time (they usually don't have to).
We had a similar incident with a boy recently, he didn't ask to go until it was too late. There was a supply teacher in and apparently he didn't want to ask.
Now, if he asks, he gets to go. I'd rather give him the benefits of the doubt even if he was actually taking the Mickey than assume he is and him be embarrassed again.
But there are other children who will ask to go literally every 10 minutes, or every single time the teacher hands them work to do. You have to balance it because a) it's disruptive and b) they can't go through life thinking that they can just get up and walk out of a room every time they don't fancy doing something.
In addition, we had a fire drill yesterday. As we were passing the toilets to go outside, a boy from the next door class came out. He'd walked out while the teacher was otherwise engaged and the TA was about to come and find him.
So there you have a 7 year old wandering round a school with the fire alarms blaring.
If it had been real, and he'd panicked, someone would have had to go looking for him.
Even if the child tells an adult, rather than asks, at least they know exactly where they are.

However, challenging THAT is out of order, making toilets unavailable.
At my school, there are several children with medical needs, we would never even consider such a move.

the toilets are available to students any time except lesson times, terrible to be locked.

Yogimummy123

Wasn't what I asked so I will make it clearer for you.

What are you going to do when your children use the toilet as an excuse to exit lessons because they don't what to do them and don't need to go (to the toilet) because you have given them permission to walk out?

Dagenham did you mean to be so rude?

Boney I'll answer that for you because that's exactly what I told DS to do.

I told him if he thought he was going to wet himself then he had every right to go to the toilet and that if he was desperately stuck on the walk to the office to find a bush to go behind.

He never used it as an excuse, to my knowledge, and the grades he obtained at school were evidence of that (he did well at school).

Not all kids who say they need to go to the loo are taking the piss. If you'll excuse the pun.

He was not able to go to the toilet before school, after a bus journey of almost 90 minutes, he was not always able to go at breaktime as the caretaker took a sadistic delight in walking slowly to open the toilets and he couldn't go again before he went home as the toilets were locked all bar the library and games pavilion as soon as the children were due to leave.

This was due to incidences of vandalism in previous years (we were led to believe it was approx 9-10 years before DS attended the school but toilets had been flooded)

Not all children use going to the toilet as an excuse to exit lessons and to say that they do is disingenuous.

This absolutely terrifies me for my DD.

When her steroid inhaler use is highest, she drinks a load more and needs the loo more. This is, of course, completely random.

I would hope that a note from me to any secondary school staff would be enough to allow her use of the loo should she not get into our preferred, much less draconian school!

Exactly. Most occasionally need a trip.
Use professional judgment

Some take the mickey. Some vandalise the toilets, skive or go for a fag.

It's why a diary page with traceable times etc is handy. Check who is where and when, in case there's any conniving going on.

If a child left my class without permission they would get a detention.

Tech if you'd tried to do that with my DS I would have refused to allow him to do the detention and gone to the headmaster to ensure that my DS had free access to a toilet.

If a child left my class without permission they would get a detention

If my child did this because you hadn't allowed them to nip to the loo, she wouldn't be attending the detention either and I would discuss the consequences with the HT

yes jacques your dd would be allowed to go with a note from home. if they have a doctors i don't think we can refuse

If my child did this because you hadn't allowed them to nip to the loo, she wouldn't be attending the detention either and I would discuss the consequences with the HT

Our HT would 100% support the class teachers decision