Schoolgirl, 15, ‘stopped from using toilet while on period’

[WinnieSmith]

Schoolgirl, 15, ‘stopped from using toilet while on period’ then put in seclusion

metro.co.uk/2021/05/31/schoolgirl-15-stopped-from-using-toilet-while-on-her-period-14680071/

"...we do ask that students make every effort to do this during break and lunch time to minimise disruption to lessons..."

It's depressing to discover that, in 2021, it is still beyond the ability of some schools to solve issues associated with girls needing to go to the toilet, in this case because of menstruation. The British education systems have had more than a century to solve this.

@vesuvia

It's depressing to discover that, in 2021, it is still beyond the ability of some schools to solve issues associated with girls needing to go to the toilet, in this case because of menstruation. The British education systems have had more than a century to solve this.

How would you solve it?

@Scabz

But why hadn't she gone at break

I think you’re done on the internet today @Scabz

Yikes.

@SirSamuelVimes literally let them use the loo. It won’t ruin their education.

Everyday life is interrupted by toilet trips, meetings, cinema, work etc etc.

[quote BlankieBops]@SirSamuelVimes literally let them use the loo. It won’t ruin their education.

Everyday life is interrupted by toilet trips, meetings, cinema, work etc etc.[/quote]
You clearly don’t work in a school.

If every kids was allowed to nip to the loo anytime they fancy you would easily have 100 pupils roaming the halls unsupervised.

Add in bullying, peer on peer abuse, kids absconding, self harming and using their phones to arrange county lines drug deals. It is a massive safeguarding issue.

You can’t let teenagers wander off whenever they feel like it.

@SirSamuelVimes

This really is more difficult than it seems, from a teacher's point of view. Most schools have a "not during lessons" rule because otherwise the disruption can be huge. These are teenagers - they are going to push boundaries, they would often rather be anywhere other than in lessons, and giving them a get out of jail free card can create a nightmare.

From a safeguarding point of view, the corridors and outdoor areas aren't supervised during lessons, because students aren't meant to be wandering about. So if you let everyone go to the toilet during lessons you get increased behaviour incidents. These could be serious, bullying and physical assault, or even sexual assaults considering how frighteningly widespread these are in schools. At the bottom of the scale you've just got kids being idiots and pulling faces or swearing through the windows of classrooms as they walk past. There's no way schools have the staffing capacity to have staff deployed to supervise the corridors & wider site during lesson time, so if you let kids out of your room mid lesson you are necessarily letting them out into an unsupervised environment.

Then you have just the basic swinging the lead, wanting a break from lessons. If you say girls can always leave to go to the toilet then there will be a decent proportion of girls who will just shout "period!" at you and demand to be let out of the lesson, every lesson.

Then you have the use of toilet breaks as a coordinated attack on the lesson. Multiple students all wanting to go, one after the other after the other, just to bugger up the lesson (and everyone else's learning) for a laugh.

The classroom teacher is going to have management coming down on them like a ton of bricks if they are letting kids out of their lessons all the time. But how do you do it for some but not others? How do you let the nice well behaved girls out to go to the loo because you know they won't piss about and aren't likely to be lying, but then tell the disruptive girl who hates your lesson and has arranged with her mate in the other class to both go to the loo at half past, that she can't go?

Having read this ^^ I now feel bad for the school What an awkward situation with no obvious solution

Hang on here!

Are these comments leaning towards "she's a troublemaker, she's using her period as an excuse" etc?

Surely we should be focussing on the school's reaction, my "favourite" still being "...we do ask that students make every effort to do this during break and lunch time to minimise disruption to lessons..."

@Scabz

yes, i think you broke mumsnet ...

[quote BlankieBops]@SirSamuelVimes literally let them use the loo. It won’t ruin their education.

Everyday life is interrupted by toilet trips, meetings, cinema, work etc etc.[/quote]
Ok, now let's run this worst case scenario past you.

Girl A (aged 12) has gone to the loo mid lesson. She's on her period and has left the classroom, going to the nearest toilet block (which is a couple of minutes walk away). Legitimate use of toilet pass.

On the way there she runs into Boys B & C (aged 15). They have also "gone to the toilet", except they haven't. They've bunked off lessons for five minutes and have hidden round the back of a building. They see girl A on her way to the toilet and grab her, pull her behind the building, and sexually assault her.

Girl A's parents want to know how the school was keeping their daughter safe? The pupils involved were all unsupervised as a result of being out of lessons to go to the toilet. They had all asked, and been granted, permission to be out of lessons for the purposes of going to the toilet.

If you were the head teacher, what would you say to the parents?

Re. Likelihood of sexual assault occuring in school. This is from MP Jess Phillips, commenting on the research in this area:

"It was uncovered by the women and equalities select committee, and taken to the current schools minister and the then secretary of state for education, that there was not just rape culture, there was rape occurring – every school day in a year there would be a rape that was going on in school.

‘A third of 16 to 18-year-olds stated that they had experienced unwanted touching, so sexual assault at school, and two-thirds of 13- to 21-year-olds said that they’d suffered harassment at school."

Again, problem behaviour in toilets isnt a new issue, why are schools still unable to find a way to deal with it?

Because no-one has found a magical way to make teenagers behave themselves, and taxpayers don't want to fund full time corridor monitors and toilet attendants in schools?

World of work preparation. God forbid she ends up with a job where she can't go to the loo outside of allocated break times
. Ffs.

@SirSamuelVimes

make teenagers behave themselves

Make teenage boys behave themselves?

Like teaching for example!

GravityFalls

Happened to me and the teacher denied me going I went anyway as I had permission from my parents, just aswell I had a heavy period and needed to change, so much so I ended up going on the pill to help. I was in no way a troublesome student actually fairly quiet.

All teenagers! The worst assault I saw in my teaching career was one girl against another. She came up behind her with a pair of textiles scissors and hacked off her ponytail.

Trust me, that was not someone you wanted wandering the corridors unsupervised.

Are these comments leaning towards "she's a troublemaker, she's using her period as an excuse" etc?

No, just that some kids will give any excuse to get out of class. Plus letting kids out of class is a safeguarding issue.

If the government would provide extra money for staff to supervise kids to and from toilets this would be less of an issue.

There's plenty of breaks during a school day for her to change her towel/tampon or she could even pop to the loo quickly when moving between lessons. I had the most God awful heavy and painful periods in my teens but never felt the need to leave during a lesson. Too much entitled behaviour in today's society instead of thinking and planning ahead.

Some of you have never worked in schools and it shows. What would you suggest schools do about it? What insight do you think you have that professionals with decades of experience haven’t thought of? You can’t expect to just waltz out of class without permission whenever you feel like it. Teachers certainly can’t.

It's not work preparation though is it. If your work place makes you freebleed without your consent, they're a shitty workplace.

As a teenager you're inexperienced. You simply haven't had the time to get to know your cycle or have trialled every sanpro/bc product and found what works.
Pads shift, tampons can go in wrong and become painful, discharge or bloody underwear can feel massively uncomfortable and is, imo, much more of a distraction to a students learning. None of this should have to be explained to a teacher.

My dog goes to the backdoor and gets let out immediately. I don't tell him; I know your body better than you, go and sit down until I say you can go. I just let him go. Girls should be treated better than a dog ffs.

quizqueen are you actually serious?!!!!! Having a heavy period at 12 to15 years of age and not wanting to bleed through your skirt all over the chair is considered "Too much entitled behaviour in today's society instead of thinking and planning ahead" Oh my lord. I feel sorry for your teenagers if yu have any

@MuffyIsMiffed

Some of you have never worked in schools and it shows. What would you suggest schools do about it? What insight do you think you have that professionals with decades of experience haven’t thought of? You can’t expect to just waltz out of class without permission whenever you feel like it. Teachers certainly can’t.

Exactly. I have often had this issue being peri but I can't just leave the class unattended to go to the toilet. I just put up with it. Not pleasant but ok if wearing black.

As a teacher. I always let any kids go but it is very disruptive as you have to sign their planner open it on the date. Disruption from another student who you maybe helping. Then that sets up a few more for wanting to go to.
Managing 30 teenagers isn't easy.

[quote WinnieSmith]@SirSamuelVimes

make teenagers behave themselves

Make teenage boys behave themselves?[/quote]
Happened to me in a girls' school - all bar the sexual aspect of the assault.

Teaching boys to behave is another issue. Vitally important, but not the whole issue.

@HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime

We had a staff meeting and a male member of staff asked if girls were on their period could they wait or did they have to go. And the FEMALE member of SLT said that no it wouldn't be an emergency and that they can wait and it doesn't come on suddenly. The school do offer toilet passes for medical need but that relies on the child having been to the Dr's about it.

I couldn't believe it, how little did she know about the female body to come to that conclusion. Personally if a girl in my class needs to go I let them and will take the flak if they get caught.

I think some women assume their experience of periods is the same as every other women's experience of periods. Which is obviously not the case.

@sharksarecool

To those who support all girls being allowed to leave lessons all the time because it's impossible to manage periods any other way: do you think some careers should be closed off to women gor rhis reason? Because I'm pretty sure jobs like surgeons or bus drivers won't be able ti facilitate sudden downing of tools or pulling over into a layby to accommodate menstrual cycles. And didn't women of the past have to fight for the right to do these jobs, against men who used our periods as one of the reasons why we couldn't do things? Are we really suggesting that women cannot be relied on to perform any role which requires us to be away from a toilet for longer than 50 minutes? Bloody hell, I hope this isn't what 5th wave feminism is going to look like!

10 year olds + starting periods in school is not nearly the same as a full time job that someone chose to train to do. Out of curiosity how many female bus drivers do you know, because the very few I've ever seen dont seem to last. I would imagine loo breaks are a problem for them amongst other issues.

Just so we are clear, my female neighbour has barely ever worked and cannot go on long trips because of toilet issues, and I would never become a bus driver ( or surgeon) because of toilet issues. Even without periods I still need to use the loo often and not be far from one when I need it.
But these are choices I make, in school there apparently are no choices.