That it's a basic human right for kids to be able to use the toilet at school?

[sorrysaywhatnow]

So, fully prepared to be told I'm being unreasonable, that it's disruptive to other students etc, but if your year 9 daughter has her period and is flooding, surely it's BU for teachers to say you can't use the toilet in lesson time unless you have a medical exemption for bladder problems? She had to sit for the entire lesson, refused permission even when she had to describe the problem to the teacher. I mean, really? I knew it was a new policy that the school had introduced, but I think it's ridiculous.

If she described the problem and was still refused then that is bizarre. I would definitely contact to complain.

It's a difficult one. I have been a secondary school teacher and the amount of kids who go out to the toilet because they are bored massively outstrips those who genuinely need to go.

I think there should be some kind of card system for medical reasons including periods but again this is hard to police and would be abused.

Completely agree - utterly ridiculous. Schools should have compassion to all girls for this reason. Complain OP.

Of course she should - but have you explained her situation to the school? If you have, and they are refusing to let her go they ABU - but if they don't know they obviously aren't.

I'd just tell her to go the worse they can do is give her a detention and she can just refuse to go. They can't exactly fence her in after school.
We had this when I was at school begging to go to the loo it's embarrassing and not healthy holding it, especially when you are on you want to be clean and make sure your not leaking etc.

If that was my DD, I would tell her that she should get up, walk out of the classroom and sort herself out. I would then deal with the teacher for humiliating her.

I got up and walked out a class when this happened to me when I was 14. And I was a proper goody two shoes. Never did anything to get into trouble.
I was just so angry that the teacher wouldnt let me even after I told him, discreetly, what the problem was. He walked away from me loudly saying that it wasnt an excuse so the whole class heard the problem. I just walked out.

Speak to the school about it. If they dont make a change and promise girls access to the toilet when needed then tell them that you've told her to just go if it is an emergency like that.

This is a massive issue at my dd school
(one of many). They are not allowed to leave the classroom under any circumstances to use the loo.
It's appalling.

I would call school and arrange for her to be issued with a medical toilet pass that she can use when she needs to. Students misbehaving in toilets is a massive massive issue in most schools. And I’m talking smoking, vandalism and worse.

Secondary school teacher here- it is so disruptive to lessons when children constantly want to leave the room to use the toilet. We have a blanket ‘no’ policy in lessons straight after break or lunch as kids tend to use it as an excuse to meet up unsupervised (hello tik tok videos that have been doing the rounds).

Obviously if a student explained, or in particular if a girl asked more than once there does need to be a little bit of leniency, if they explicitly said it was period related they should be allowed to go, it takes enough for them to say that, it’s unlikely to be a scive card.

Slightly OT but there were 19 pages of complaints about the school presented to our MP as the school refuses to engage

There are a lot of threads started this evening about periods. Maybe don’t share stories of your teen girls flooding

I'm a teacher and we don't allow kids out during lessons as we have several self harmers so we need to ensure they are supervised so a blanket rule.

If a kid came a whispered to me (and they do) that they REALLY needed to gi to the toilet. They were ukd be allowed to go. I don't know a single teacher that wouldn't

It's also a life lesson. Go Inbetween classes and break times (just the same as teachers have to )

YANBU. I'd hit the fucking roof.

I’d also say the flooding needs to be addressed. 1sr check she isn’t anemic. Such a young woman shouldn’t have issues like that.
But she should be allowed to go to the toilet

I allow students to go in my class if they need the toilet but they have to make up the minutes they were out of the classroom for at the end of the lesson or at breaktime. This has solved all the toilet problems. It means that those who are the genuine urgent cases will use the toilet and make up the minutes (as the lesser of two evils) and those who aren’t the urgent cases or who just want an excuse to leave the classroom and mess about just hold it in until breaktime as they don’t want to make up the time.

I don’t think posters know how ridiculous the toilet issue is getting in schools. For every one person that’s bursting, there’s another 100 kids who go just to look at their phone in their pocket. They’re sometimes out of lessons for 15-20 minutes. Strange how most (I’m not talking about periods or overactive bladders) kids can manage not to need the toilet or for the duration of a cinema film or a football match or a four hour fortnight marathon, or make sure they relieve themselves before all these activities, but can’t seem to do it for a one hour lesson.

As a teacher I’ve been told off by SLT for not allowing a child to go and for allowing children to go. It’s a very difficult issue for teachers. Kids do not always tell the truth and loads of them will just ask to avoid work or to generally disrupt

Formal complaint and ofsted.

Actually think its ripe for a challenge under Equalities Act.

More importantly teach your daughter to stand up and walk out. There is absolutely no justification for refusing a basic human right.

This has all been tried at our school but there is no turning back.

Well that's a really mixed bag of responses. I do honestly get that there are a lot of kids misbehaving (I hadn't even thought of self harming) and I know it really must be disruptive for teachers when kids take the piss, there has to be some sort of leniency for girls in situations like that, and they really shouldn't have to whisper or explain to male staff why they need to be excused and at the mercy of staff who want to stick by the rules.
And honestly @Fridafever I'm not sure what the point is of your comment but it's completely unnecessary - if you don't like it move along.

Absolutely agree about a formal complaint BUT, this is not an OFSTED issue. Ask for a copy of the school complaints procedure and work through it steadily.

Tell her to walk out next time.

Also, if she does hopefully teacher realises that yes, it's urgent. Worst that happens is a detention but if it gets to that, you Dan just challenge it as a parent

For all those saying just get up and walk out - at my school all toilets were locked during lessons so if the teacher wouldn’t give you the key you couldn’t just walk out. There was nowhere to change/relieve yourself

@Unanananana

If that was my DD, I would tell her that she should get up, walk out of the classroom and sort herself out. I would then deal with the teacher for humiliating her.

This is my stance too , all 3 of my kids were told that if they needed the toilet and were refused that they should politely leave the classroom and go to toilet , i would then deal with school if any problem . 1 child still in school , not happened so far ,i know some kids take the p , but they should be given the benefit of the doubt within reason . It is a basic right to use a toilet .

Oh that’s awful - and at Primary? I’m a primary school governor OP - don’t beat around the bush with form teachers here: go straight to the Head about this issue ASAP, and if not resolved take it to the governors. That isn’t acceptable at all.