Ireland will no longer be providing single sex toilets in primary and secondary schools!!!

[XXSex]

I am LIVID!!! New technical guidance has been released.
www.education.ie/en/School-Design/Technical-Guidance-Documents/Current-Technical-Guidance/sdg-02-06-sanitary-facilities-april-2021-.pdf

All mixed sex. Hand basin outside the WC (WAH your bloody hands in front of boys). Doors down to the floor (any one else see an issue in a mixed sex school with mixed sex toilets with this set up)

What the were the department thinking?!!!

"Unesco is urging governments around the world to prioritise providing single-sex toilets in schools, warning as many as 1 in 10 girls in some countries are missing out on lessons because of their period"

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/single-sex-toilets-unesco-un-international-womens-day-period-a8244776.html

It is well known in development circles that single sex toilets are essential for girls to access education.

Not having single sex toilets is denying female children their human right to be able to access education.

We KNOW period shaming is an issue in UK schools, we KNOW some girls stay off during their period. These policies will make it worse.

The people pushing these policies should hang their heads in shame. They're taking away rights of girls and sending the country backwards.

(I have no problem with third spaces for trans kids - actually think that would be a good thing).

Great letter bestmammy.

Totally agree that some unisex options in addition to single sex is a great idea.

Hooray!

Can someone tell Ireland, please?

It's ultimately going to cost the schools a fortune, as - after the inevitable legal battles - they are forced to retrofit single-sex facilities.

If there is money to buy all these toolkits and packs and hold long meetings with all the pay of the people at them and the policy writing and the creation of these new toilet blocks, there is absolutely definitely funding for additional toilets to single sex ones.

Schools weren't thrilled when they had to provide accessible disabled toilets, but they were funded and pushed through. And disability charities were neither loaded, nor heavily government funded, nor constantly popping into government select committees, nor with half the establishment and institutions rushing around with shoelaces and badges and enthusiasm for their cause.

Funding is not the problem.

And once we've established that it would be far more (insert all the social justice words and jargon) to have additional spaces and retaining the sex based ones so that all needs are met instead of girls harmed....

and that funding really is not the issue.....

Then we can get to the real issue.

The girls at dd's school drink nothing all day so that they won't need the toilet. The basins hadn't worked for years and nobody cared because nobody used them. Until covid of course. Whoever thinks this works is utterly deluded.

A local secondary school had a new toilet block put in and it was unisex. As may be imagined, the girls only use these particular toilets in extremis. Which blithering idiot thinks of these ideas? After all, adolescence, particularly girls dealing with their first few periods, is embarrassing enough without having to cope with immature boys on the other side of the cubicle door.

This is another area where language matters. Three types of toilet:

1. Single sex
2. Mixed sex - cubicles, floor to ceiling doors, each with a sanitary bin, wash basins in shared space. Not sure if they have to open into a public area or not.
3. Unisex - single unit with lockable door, sanitary bin, wash basin and opens on to a public corridor.

Safe Schools Alliance factsheet 10 in this list will be useful for UK people. safeschoolsallianceuk.net/resources-2/factsheets/#Single_Sex_Toilets_and_Changing_Facilities_factsheet

In addition, as an adult l really would not want unisex toilets so why should our children have to put up with them?

Disabled children have to put up with them

No, disabled children either use the single sex facilities provided, or if they need an accessible toilet, they have a single, enclosed room with a sink. Which is wholly different, obviously, to a row of stalls with spaces and shared sinks.

This is about as daft as the 'but you share a single use room as a designated bathroom which the people you live with also use, so no female person can possibly have an issue sharing a row of cubicles with spaces at top and bottom and shared basins alongside any male stranger'. Your numbers don't crunch.

If you're concerned about lower standards and less equality for disabled children btw, you may be interested in the excellent post above by a poster about the experience of her daughter with Autism regarding compulsory mixed sex provision.

The disabled toilet is for both sexes at my child’s school and obviously has a sink inside and opens onto the corridor. The similarities to this design is that it affords less privacy opening on to a corridor (crunchy tampon wrappers) and that it gets messier with both sexes using it.
Some children need to use the disabled toilet in case they have an emergency and need to pull a pull-cord. I am not crunching numbers or daft, just saying the disabled loos have some of the disadvantages of loos for both sexes.

To those mentioning the issues that Muslims will face, this is indeed more likely to garner attention than the issues all women will face.

About two years ago, I had my Lib Dem councillor over for a cup of tea. I wanted to talk about my city council's enthusiasm for mixed-sex toilets. She was with me for an hour and a half. Her eyes were completely glazed over as I went through all the reasons why this was a serious fucking problem: risk of assault, discomfort for girls and women menstruating, privacy issues, trauma for girls and women who have been previously abused...all of it. It was like she was comatose while listening to me. It was disturbing, actually. Then, towards the end, I mentioned Muslim women, gently suggesting that such arrangements could literally obliterate their access to public toilets. Her eyes cleared instantly, she sat straight up and said, in an excited voice, 'that's a good point! I will raise that with the party!' She had miraculously revived from her cabbage-like stupor.

It's cynical as hell, but it might be worth pointing out the religious issue while we wait for people's brains to de-jellify.

@therestissilence

To those mentioning the issues that Muslims will face, this is indeed more likely to garner attention than the issues all women will face.

About two years ago, I had my Lib Dem councillor over for a cup of tea. I wanted to talk about my city council's enthusiasm for mixed-sex toilets. She was with me for an hour and a half. Her eyes were completely glazed over as I went through all the reasons why this was a serious fucking problem: risk of assault, discomfort for girls and women menstruating, privacy issues, trauma for girls and women who have been previously abused...all of it. It was like she was comatose while listening to me. It was disturbing, actually. Then, towards the end, I mentioned Muslim women, gently suggesting that such arrangements could literally obliterate their access to public toilets. Her eyes cleared instantly, she sat straight up and said, in an excited voice, 'that's a good point! I will raise that with the party!' She had miraculously revived from her cabbage-like stupor.

It's cynical as hell, but it might be worth pointing out the religious issue while we wait for people's brains to de-jellify.

This winds me right up too.

The hierarchy of identity politics.

Might be worth emailing [email protected] too, Irish posters.

As per above, the distinction between single-sex, unisex and mixed sex toilets and bathrooms needs to be made clear and then consistently used. Even within this thread, posters have used unisex and mixed sex interchangeably. No consistent definition will absolutely cloud this important issue.

Our local high school, a new building, has unisex toilet blocks just like the OPs colour photo. It's in Scotland. The toilet cubicles are alternately pink and blue, with sanitary bins in the pink cubicles. The kids hate them, I've heard reports of girls going the whole day without going for a wee, and avoiding drinking water too.
On the ground floor the children themselves have designated one block 'girls' and one 'boys' but some kids still avoid using them just in case.
It's awful and the school are adamant that it reduces bullying.
The loos have no lids either so you can't even sit on the loo and have a cry/moment to yourself.
It's a community facility too so in the evenings/weekends you have adults using the facilities too.

Hmm in accordance with the definitions above the loos I've described are mixed sex, not unisex
Although the school calls them unisex.

@MountainWitch

Hmm in accordance with the definitions above the loos I've described are mixed sex, not unisex Although the school calls them unisex.

And that is a real issue, @MountainWitch - to many people, UNIsex toilets would be “one sex only toilets” yet to others, it would mean “toilets for both sexes”, and others still would see it as individual self-contained cubicles for 1 person (perhaps that are used by either sex).

As for every issue around gender and sex, definitions are so important - and ambiguity around which toilet type is being referred to is really clouding the problem.

She had miraculously revived from her cabbage-like stupor.

I'm sorry, but this made me laugh out loud.

Definitions are crucial. Also when people say gender neutral toilets they usually mean mixed sex so always use the term mixed sex. Say what you see and all that. Using gender neutral or unisex to refer to mixed sex toilets is misleading.