To think secondary schools should not have unisex toilets?

[seriouslylong]

So my daughter started secondary school this year in a temporary sight and yesterday moved to the permanent sight. She came home and told me they only have unisex toilets in the school

I looked on a local Facebook page this morning and there was a parent on there asking for opinions.

I don't think boys and girls should have to share a toilet! They need their privacy at this age!

What are your thoughts? Also would be interested to hear if your children have unisex toilets at school?

fuzzy I was planning to do the same with my DD when the time arises. You can buy little packs that have about 10 wipes in which will be ideal.

If the toilets are like the ones in the photo then yes, I think they are better . I was also bullied by girls in the girls toilets at school - was awful.

I always thought the whole point of sex segregated sex education was so both sexes could feel able to ask questions without feeling embarrassed about asking them in front of members of the opposite sex.

I also think gender fluidity is a load of crap personally. Toilets are to meet the toileting needs of each sex, they aren't there to validate anyones identity.

Why do some posters think you can’t hear what happens in a cubicle? This has not been my experience in any cubicle toilet, ever. I can hear what dh does in the bathroom and that’s through a door and several walls!
The day I’m asked to use the same toilets as pupils in school I’ll resign. It’s awkward enough for both sides when you’re on a trip somewhere.

Why would you be asked to use the same toilets as pupils?

To be fair if teenage girls and boys are expected to get over their awkwardness and share toilets then why not teachers?

I teach at university and I share unisex toilets with my students. I don't like it.

mostly open plan with girl full cubicles on one side, boys on the other, with sinks at the end closest to the hall

My children's secondary is like this - girls one side boys other floor to ceiling cubicles sinks down middle and huge opening straight into corridor - school seems to like them as easy to supervise.

DD1 seems fine with them. She has wipes, pads and change of pants/tights in her bag.

DS doesn't like them at all and tires to wait till end of school day.

I'm sure lots of male and female teachers use the same toilet. As in one that is a self contained cubicle.

A bit like all the accessible toilets up and down the country.

Why? Someone upthread said it was like this in their school (and if there are no privacy issues, then why not?)

In all the schools I’ve worked in there have been separate sex staff toilets, plus usually a couple of single-cubicle, unisex ones in other parts of the school. These are invariably rank and I never use them (but can smell them walking past)

I would have refused to use them as a teen me and my friends used to be embarrassed all the time in the loo and we would use the hand dryers to hide the fact we are opening a pad. It would be so much worse with boys in there

You can't hear anything above the din of everything else going on in school. Plus they are contained with floor to ceiling walls and doors. Just how noisy are some of you when in the loo🤔🤔

There is no din during class time. My bathroom at home has floor to ceiling walls and door but I still hear through it.

Nah not buying it...toilet visits during class time are discouraged and the boy's and girls cubicles are across a divide of sinks.
Many schools aren't quiet even during class time sadly.

Tbf the ones at dd's school are not divided by sinks, but they are in the main corridors and I would imagine there is always background noise, much more so than in standard toilets.

I completely agree with you River

The bullying thing is an unintended consequence in some establishments where its had that effect. And it's repeatedly used to justify the situation.

The truth is it's not come from a place of concern for the children. Its come from.a place where the intention is to help groom girls into men being in their spaces. We either accept that and the risk.that comes with it or we withdraw from.society completely.

Their way or the high way.

And we all know who's been peddling this shit and we all know what kind of people they are

Arkos you don’t have to “buy it” I am telling you what my experience of school toilets is like in the schools I’ve worked in over a long period of time. I have also told you what my bathroom at home is like. Your experience May be different but you cannot tell me that the experience I live through is false.
Are you a man by any chance?

I'm sorry Gerry but who exactly is peddling this shit and what sort of people are they supposed to be?

Asteria I have been immersed in this debate/issue for about 3 years now and whilst some might think it tin-hat territory I have now read and see so much that I truly believe that the destruction of children's (and women's) boundaries is the very point behind the current identity debate. It's the endgame. There is a lot of money, particularly in the US but here as well, and there are a lot of voices whispering in high places.

And schools are becoming complicit in it, even if they don't understand what it is they are doing. But they need to, they need to wake the fuck up.

Who is peddling it? Paedophiles. Abusers. And if you think I'm barking, just do some research into PIE.

Redesigning school toilets like these has nothing to do with trans gender issues, paedophiles or grooming girls. Sorry if that doesn't buy into your view of the world but it just doesn't.

10 years ago we started to look into modernising the toilets at a school that I was associated with and this style of toilet was being promoted as a way of preventing vandalism and bullying and in order to follow best guidelines of allowing supervision without breaching privacy.

Never once, in any discussion, did anyone mention gender or gender neutral or how unisex toilets would make things easier for trans gender pupils.

The plans were considered in order to address reluctance of many pupils to use the old style toilets for reasons previously mentioned on here.

It's an unintended consequence and plays straight into the hands of those who want girls to get used to not being able to say 'no' to the males in their safe spaces. I said upthread that it's about more than just schools, but you dismissed that.

But it also draws attention to whoever starting making these decisions not placing enough attention on the safeguarding of girls. Short term thinking. Long term consequences.

and it's not about children with genuine sex/body dysmorphia. It never has been.

Mixed sex toilets do nothing to eliminate bullying, so thats a red herring right there.

Girls are refusing to drink or urinate rather than use them. They are not for the benefit of girls.

Well yes they cabt eliminate bullying when twice as many people are using them. as before can they

Course when boys bully it's "just banter" and now the girls have no where to hide