Doughnuts in the school toilet

[Pate101]

Just had a chat with my two kids, boy age 15 and girl age 13.

They told me that they hardly ever use the loos at school because they are so disgusting. They don't drink all day so they don't need to go.

The whole school only has 45 mins for lunch, there's nowhere to sit so kids eat their lunch in the loos.

There's food in the toilets and urinals, floating sandwiches, crisp packets, cakes 🤮 Some of the toilets don't lock and there's often no loo roll.

My daughter avoids using the loo even when she's on her period.

Is it unreasonable to expect my daughter to be able to have a reasonably clean toilet to use at school?

Why do you think it might be unreasonable?

The whole school only has 45 mins for lunch, there's nowhere to sit so kids eat their lunch in the loos.

How is there nowhere to sit?

Disgusting that kids are eating in the toilets and also that they are in such a horrible state they can’t be used as required!

I’d get in touch with the school and raise your concerns. I remember my school toilets were pretty horrible too (but it was the 90s so I guess we just put up with it - I wouldn’t expect the same for my kids!)

At DSD school they toilets are locked unless it’s lunch or break so then they are packed full and dsd can’t get in . She has a pass but the medical centre is so far from most of her classes she can’t get there in time (has IBS) so has been school refusing

The eating aside, my memories of school loos were to avoid them if at all possible, and generally the mean girls hung out in them to smoke.

It's completely revolting and that we expect kids to put up with it is not on at all. Complain loudly (ex-teacher here).

Lunchtime arrangements in many schools are far from adequate. Even in the private school where I worked the facilities were very poor. There was so little dining space that the pupils were encouraged to take their meals in paper containers and eat them outside. I have to say a roast dinner eaten out of a paper bag with a flimsy plastic fork is unappealing.
Then the containers couldn’t be recycled as they were contaminated with food! So much for being a Green School.
You are not being unreasonable.

Same here except in my DC's school the toilets were completely overhauled, looked like something you would find in a nice hotel with under mount sinks and Dyson hand dryers too. They were just lovely. I was shocked, no nasty dried out white soap that never lathered. All the parents using them on an evening commented on it. They also had CCTV in the corridors meaning they could monitor who went in if there were issues after.

OP you need to contact the school, it is unacceptable not to provide adequate seating for lunches and functioning toilets.

I avoided toilets in the 90s cos they were hideous and full of people smoking. You would think things are better now!

My school is exactly like this. We have 35 minutes for lunch (to get 2000 kids through) so students just grab food and eat it on the go wherever. I don’t think my school is unique either. It’s a case of old buildings, over crowding and not enough staff.

This is very common. My DD barely uses the toilets either, DS used to be the same, he would dash into the toilet as soon as he got home

And the staff toilets aren’t much better. We have 1 working toilet out of 4 for all our female staff as the Victorian era sewage systems can’t cope with the amount of people we have in the building.

There's a small hall for 90 kids. They have to stand outside or eat wherever they can find a space.

My son has stopped eating lunch and has it when he cones home!

*900 kids!

The governors/trustees have responsibility for finance and buildings and you need to complain to them very very loudly and persistently. Go to public health department of the LA and tell them that the children do not have proper sanitary arrangements or places to eat.

That's awful, is there no school dinners?

Don’t want clean toilets for your son? What have the school said regarding behaviour management around toilet ‘use’?

Our secondary school toilets were vile and a bullies dream, you wouldn’t go in them unless you didn’t mind being beaten up. There was for a while a ‘craze’ for putting entire toilet rolls down the toilet and flooding them out, we also had a smearer when I was in year 8 I think. You obviously can’t have cctv in toilets, and it isn’t practical to put two adults in every toilet. Ours was only solved when went to single cubicle facilities (like disability access toilets).

The point is - there is nowhere to sit and eat the school dinners unless you are the lucky few to get to that hall first.

The tread title sounds like an early 90's Indie Band !

Vaping is the thing in school toilets now. Local secondary is trying to have zero tolerance for that. Having to have staff hanging about the toilets at lunchtime (bet they love being on that rota)

How is there nowhere to sit?

Same issue in my kids school. School has too many pupils compared to lunchroom space. In the summer they can eat outside but in winter if it's too cold and rainy they either stand around the edge of the dinner hall or in the corridor. Toilets are also disgusting.
As an aside, I've been to several University open days with my DD and was very surprised by the clean, lockable and numerous toilets on campus. High schools should do better.

I'd complain to the school - have you done that yet?

I'd be making a fuss and getting other parents & pupils to do the same.

It's not good enough.

Yes, awful for both of them. But even worse for girls on their period!

Uni students are adults though not teenagers going through puberty!

In my school they eat in their form rooms. I hate it but only Yr 7 fit in the hall and it's cold outside!

Toilets should be cleaned regularly though, more than other places as they are teenagers.