State schools around me are locking toilets for students

[MyopicBunny]

Has anyone else heard of this happening? The students are told that they may only use the bathrooms at set times. The rest of the time they lock them. Apparently, this is Rishi Sunak's idea to help improve attendance to lessons. I think it's an abuse of human rights. Nobody should be stopped from going to the loo. Imagine a girl who needed to go urgently because her period started or a student with IBS?

I think it's completely batshit. It doesn't affect my children because one is at nursery and the other HE.

Yes, this is a thing. Apparently staff are concerned they cant supervise children who take advantage and use the toilets to skive, smoke, mess around etc.
So they just lock the toilets and only allow limited access.

What happens if a girl gets her period? In my granddaughter's school they are supposed to get a "toilet pass" which they have to show to the teacher who then may (or may not) let them go.
DGD had to ask her (male) teacher to go to the toilet (she has heavy periods ) he refused- she then leaked all over her clothes. She now has a pass- but you have to show the teacher the pass (of course all the boys know why and are as revolting as only teen boys can be) then go to the office at the other end of the school, wait until a staff member is available and no one else is in the loo, then and only then is the door unlocked. On several occasions this has been too late.
yes she has seen her GP, is waiting for a referral but the NHS, so

This is the reality for thousands of children.

I don't think this can be legal, surely? No wonder so many people are HE these days.

That is disgusting what happened to your granddaughter. How unsurprising that this was a male teacher. And this is the sort of example one can cite when people are convinced that women have equality.

Yep.

State schools around here do it.

Shocking behaviour.

A friends' daughter is too scared to go to school when she's on her period (only had a couple so far)

At the school where my friend works it’s got nothing to do with Rishi Sunak, it’s because there’s an absolute epidemic of internal truanting (kids coming to school but not going to lessons), vaping in the toilets etc. to the extent that it’s not safe to have them open all the time. It’s poor behaviour of other students (and quite frankly, their parents) which is causing this.

DD avoids the school toilets due to the behaviour of a minority of students.

Normal round here. Stops students hiding in toilet block to avoid lessons, vaping and generally buggering about!

I'm a secondary teacher and the toilet situation is a nightmare. We DO let pupils use the toilets at my school, yet regularly they have to be locked. Vandalism means routinely bathrooms are flooded, doors are ripped off hinges rendering cubicles un-usable, walls and sinks are smeared with god alone knows what, toilets are blocked up with items of clothing / bags /books. We get complaints but honestly what can we do? These issues are dealt with as quickly as possible and loos re-opened (and toilet checking rotas are in place to try to prevent this from happening in the first place) but we can't stop closures happening regularly. The same kids who are in there vandalising and breaking up the bathrooms are the ones with parents hammering the doors down complaining about "human rights" when the loos are out of order, being fixed. I don't think parents / society realises how out of control behaviour is in school these days.

This is my thoughts. If they get to use the loo at 2 break times and lunchtimes that’s 3 opportunities in 7ish hours, hardly an abuse of human rights. The fact is kids can and do piss take, and do anything to get out of lessons. Part of the problem is they endlessly drink from water bottles, this should also be kept to break and lunch times.

The same kids who are in there vandalising and breaking up the bathrooms are the ones with parents hammering the doors down complaining about "human rights" when the loos are out of order, being fixed. I don't think parents / society realises how out of control behaviour is in school these days

Why does that not surprise me at all.

Maybe the school needs to sharpen up their discipline around vaping instead of stopping children from being able to use the toilet.

Ok let’s say they do, and introduce bag/body searches. I’m willing to bet you would start another thread saying that was ‘an abuse of human rights’ too 🤷

You want the impossible - disciplined, calm, cooperative learning environments with zero rules or sanctions. Cloud cuckoo land.

Your post implies you know which pupils are causing the damage. Why aren’t they being dealt with? Surely anyone vandalising the school to the extent you describe should be expelled?

Do you know how difficult it is to permanently exclude kids from most state schools?

I’m sure they’re trying but in case they haven’t thought of it I’ll pass that on. 🙄

That's not true - the majority of children are well behaved. Mine certainly are. None of them has ever vaped. I have a 20 year old who doesn't drink, smoke or anything else.

The parents whose children are vandalising toilets probably couldn't care less about the child's wellbeing.

If schools can't control the behaviour of their students without resorting to infringements of human rights then something is very wrong with the school.

What are schools supposed to do? Exclude them all? Every time a kid gets a detention in our school the phone rings with their parents kicking off because little Johnny is an angel and can’t possibly deserve it etc.
Yes we lock the toilets. Yes kids need a toilet pass and a key if they need to go in lesson time. Yes we have to pay for new doors, which are bloody expensive, when they get vandalised, even with 2 teachers on duty at every break.
Yes kids hide in them on their phones, try to vape in them (we have vape alarms) or use the space to bully other children.

I’m not sorry for the fact ours are locked. It’s absolutely necessary.

This awful but I don't imagine schools take this decision lightly.

It will be for vaping and internal truanting.

I despise rishi sunak but it's society problem rooted in permissive parenting and poor attitudes about school attedance causing this, not the schools'.

Lucky I'm not at school now as I'm a bit of a wild card. No joke, I'd have pissed on the floor outside of the toilets everyday until they unlocked them.

I think you can tell my view of locking toilet doors....

at my DD's primary they have a weird policy whereby they have to find a teacher to unlock the door if they need the toilet at breaktime or lunchtime. This leads to primary age kids holding onto their wee and I believe may be the cause of my child having some accidents and issues with their bladder. There are other loos for the younger kids but yhey have to get "permission" to use the one on the younger kids playground but often get disciplined if the teacher believes they didn't get appropriate permission to use it (if another teacher gave it to them). Which means they are scared of going to the loo! Seems batshit to me especially when you're dealing with younger kids at primary age (even the older ones). School didn't bother replying to me when I complained! Quite upset about it.

And this.

You haven’t got a clue.

Ok let’s say they do, and introduce bag/body searches. I’m willing to bet you would start another thread saying that was ‘an abuse of human rights’ too 🤷

You assume wrongly. If people are bringing things like that then searching is a better thing to do than stopping people from being able to urinate ffs.

Yes this is a thing and it's disgusting especially for the girls.
I've told ds2 to piss in a corner of the playground if they are locked and I'll back him up.
Imho teachers know whose going to the toilet to piss about so deal with them don't punish the rest of the children

Here’s proof that parents are contributing to exactly the behaviour problems which mean they have to be locked in the first place. Perhaps you should send your child to a different school since you’ve got absolutely no respect for the staff at the one they attend.

Sorry, if parents can't control the behaviour of their own children then something is very wrong with them.

Parents need to take responsibility here - too much of this is palmed off onto schools and it's breaking the whole system.

You can't just have kids and farm them out to a school to teach them how to be good humans. That's parents' job first. School should absolutely help, but it starts at home. Don't think some parents have the first idea of this.