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.

This is the case in DD’s secondary. Even in break and lunchtimes, some of the toilets in certain blocks are locked so the queues for the open ones are massive and they don’t always get a chance to use one before lessons restart. It’s causing no end of problems. DD refuses to drink at school in case she can’t get to use a toilet. I sympathise with the teachers but it’s yet another case of those who can’t behave ruining it for the good kids who are the ones who suffer.

I don't think many parents or people outside education actually get it. They absolutely trash the bathrooms. Blocked loos/sinks, smeared walls etc. Vaping and worse.

In my last school we had lunch duty of literally guarding the toilet. Policing 1 in 1 out and yelling in the door when they were too long/creating mayhem (not allowed to enter for safeguarding). This is not what I completed my degree and professional qualifications and gained 25 years of experience for. I no longer teach in mainstream schools. This is only one of many reasons.

And yes I really feel for the genuine kids who can't wait/have their period. It's completely unfair. I wish I knew the answer. Behaviour and conduct is a disgrace. It was nothing like as bad as this when I started teaching. Occasional incidents sure, but not this level of disrespect and continuous mayhem.

Sorry but that's fucking disgusting. What will happen if all his mates join in? The place will be like an actual sewer.

Teachers can't go to the toilet in lessons either; you don't see them urinating all over the playground.

Honestly it's this kind of attitude that has got us into this mess.

@MamaGhina do you think it's acceptable for a girl to have to bleed all over their uniform like the poster above describes? Even though the child had a toilet pass?

No wonder so many people HE.

Do any of you teachers on this thread have your own children at these schools who are also subjected to this? Or do you send them to private school instead?

This is why we’ve sold our house to release the equity to send our kids to a private secondary school. The behaviour in the local secondary is so poor, I would have moved heaven and earth to not have to send them there.

Part of the problem is they endlessly drink from water bottles, this should also be kept to break and lunch times.

That is just ridiculous

@Caravaggiouch my child is well behaved never even had a detention so if he needs the toilet then yes I will back him to go when he needs to go.
They need to deal with the problem children causing damage, vaping not the children there to get an education.

Maybe the government could fund schools properly so that they could have staff checking the site regularly and making sure kids aren’t vaping or Vandalising the toilets.

But, no, they are cutting school funding to the bone so schools are left without the resources to sort out discipline adequately.

Schools can’t afford to replace vandalised rooms, they aren’t allowed to search bags, or exclude for poor behaviour. Parents are complaining on here if their child gets a detention or if they think a teacher might have raised their voice. You can’t remove a school’s funding, stop them using sanctions and then expect them to keep paying out to rectify the vast damage that some pupils have caused.

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

I agree with this as well, obviously. I am shocked at the amount of children aged 12 and up who seem to be raking the streets after 10pm. It's an alien concept to me. My teenagers never do / did this.

Agree.

This has been a thing since I was in secondary and I'm 38 this year.

We treat kids like sub humans and then wonder why we get the behaviour we do.

@Dabralor so my well behaved child is the one causing the issue? Don't think so

Very good points. Maybe this is much closer to the reality of what is going on here.

You don’t think a child who would piss in the corner of a playground because mummy says he can would be a problem?

It's got nothing to do with the Government. It's because of toilets being vandalised and students going to the loo during lessons and not returning. What do you think schools should do??

@MyopicBunny I understand your point but unfortunately the alternative is far worse.

I agree with the posters saying unless you’ve been on the inside you really have no idea. One of my colleagues is currently in hospital after being attacked by a student. Punishments don’t deter the ones who can’t behave. They don’t care. It’s largely for the protection of all students that toilets are closed in lesson time.

Why is it? Being limited to drinking “only” every hour or 2 isn’t remotely harmful.

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.

This is one of the most woefully naïve posts I have ever read on MN. Along with your previous one saying schools should just 'tighten up discipline around vaping'.

1. Perfectly normal, decent schools have lots and lots of behaviour problems. That is the norm.
2. A lot worse things than vaping happen in unsupervised toilets.
3. How exactly would you tighten up discipline around vaping? Search every student's bag every day? Not let them out for break/lunch, so that they can be supervised in classrooms at all times?
4. Closing toilets, though a desperate measure that nobody wants, and that I don't agree with, is a way of tightening up discipline around vaping.

It baffles me when people talk about problems in schools as though schools aren't absolutely bending over backwards to solve them. If there were easy solutions, well duh, we'd be using them. Do you think you're going to think of solutions when the people who work in that environment every day cannot?

@Caravaggiouch not when the alternative is to piss himself because the toilets are locked

Or ask a teacher or wait till break, presumably? If there’s a medical reason he can’t do what my 6 year old can he’d have a pass.

@Caravaggiouch have you not read the thread where they can't always go at break? Honestly if your happy for your child to wet themselves you let them.

I don't want that for my child

Searching a thousand student’s bags at the start of each day isn’t a viable option. Who would do it for a start! It’s not like we’ve got a bucket load of teachers sitting around looking for something to do 😆 Where would we keep all the shit we confiscate? How would we return it? It’s a laughable suggestion.

Then add to that all the parents who would object and what to do with the students who refuse because Mum and Dad said they don’t have to.

And I don’t want an environment where boys are pissing in the playground for mine but until parents start bringing their children up properly, respecting schools and backing them up on issues of discipline here we are.

Does he piss himself if he can’t use the toilet immediately in any other circumstance? On a motorway? On an aeroplane waiting to take off? In the middle of a busy event where you can’t get to the toilets immediately?

@MyopicBunny

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

Would love to hear your solutions on this - seriously. We have a behaviour group dedicated to this and we are seriously scratching our heads on this one. Please share your thoughts.