Girls protesting about loss of single-sex toilets in schools

[Ofcourseshecan]

I've just seen this on another thread and thought it deserves one of its own. Sorry if it already has a thread -- I didn't see one.

There have been protests and riots in some schools the past few days, organised on Tiktok. And while some of the protests are about other issues, the loss of single-sex toilets seems to be a major concern.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11802555/TikTok-protests-rock-Britains-schools-Pupils-scale-gates-trash-classrooms-rules.html

In Southampton, two hundred pupils staged protests at Weston Secondary School yesterday after being left 'uncomfortable' by new unisex toilets.

As they chanted 'toilet rights', the youngsters pitched up at the lavatories to also take a stand against rules preventing them from leaving lessons for the loo.

The children reported worries about the same-sex toilets at the academy school after their introduction in September.

One female pupil said 'girl emergencies' mean they should be allowed to use the toilet without having to wait 'up to two hours' for a break or lunchtime.

Meanwhile, a parent said their daughter felt so uneasy about sharing a toilet with boys that she has stopped going to the toilet during school hours.

Pupil Chloe, 14, said: 'We don't think it's fair, girls in our school are not comfortable. People think it's funny to unlock the doors while you're in there.

'We're trying to tell the teachers that it's just not fair. We've tried to talk to them before we did a protest but they're just ignoring it.'

My friend's daughter said that a classmate approached the (female) teacher and told her she thought she was starting her first period. She was told to sit down.

If there are female only toilets there are cameras - in this secondary school at least. No wonder teenagers are protesting.

There are safeguarding fishers everywhere.

www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woking-school-parent-horrified-camera-26381926#lev3rxddzi7qa6pyv1

There's a documentary on Russia's Fire Island maximum security prison on YouTube. At one point the deputy director explains that camera surveillance of the toilets is forbidden by law. Even Russia forbids this.

The camera in that article may be fixed and pointing at the non-cubicle area but even so...brrrrrr!

I think the tik tock element of this has been causing some genuine problems for safety and schools to be honest. I totally agree with all that has been put on here about the need for single sex toilets and how wrong it is not to be able to have privacy. Many schools have kept single sex toilets and had some single toilet mixed gender for students offered as separate. Protests are less the answer than students organising a formal meeting with a senior member of staff or the head to talk it through properly. It would be rare for a head not to account for clearly put, calm points of arguments from a student council. This issue though is getting mixed up with protests about students not being able to (wander the corridors or) exit lessons at any time to 'go to the toilet' which can cause real disruption in some schools in corridors and with students with problematic behaviour arranging meet-ups in toilets in lesson times. Plus it's very difficult to teach challenging classes of young people if you have students getting up and leaving lessons ad infjnitum. Those who have worked in challenging schools will know the dynamic of young people with behaviour and concentration challenges interrupting and putting hands up repeatedly to exit the room for 'filling water bottles' and then 'needing the toilet' - it doesn't take much to disrupt a class of 30 teenagers in some settings. For adults, if we have a 50 minute meeting or a 50 minute transport journey we make sure we have been to the toilet beforehand though of course very occasionally emergencies happen. It's all a difficult one but organised student protests and destruction of school property has been a problem in some areas of the country because of these 'protests' organised on the internet. Most of us on here I'm sure agree with our DC using their voices to put their case forward and effect change, but masses of students being distracted in a school day by an impending 'protest' , a surge to an area of the school and then destruction of school property will be a huge stress on teachers who can then not focus on what they should be doing in that day for students learning and everyday well being. Heads will be worried about such action being filmed and sent to the media which they then have to deal with along with press problems. I think some parents are supporting these protests without really thinking about what the least disruptive way of resolving the original problem would be. Recruitment to teaching is terrible at present. Staff are leaving in their droves or wanting to reduce their hours. Managing this kind of thing is contributing!

Yes there's another thread running. I've posted on it and will repost here if that's ok

So I hate to say it but I don't think it is right just to congratulate the protesters. Nor is it so black and white as a straight GC issues

Not all the schools with protests have single sex schools.

The school I'm involved with that had protests has single sex loos. They are locked during lessons. They have available a single unisex loo.

My guess (and I don't know for sure) is that because it is easier to police a single loo visible from the corridor. Noone can hide out in it or vape in it easily.

Most of the girls and boys using the toilet during lessons aren't really using it for the toilet. They're using it because the classroom is too intense and they need a break. Unless girls have weekly periods, it really isn't a period problem for most female students.

Unisex toilets and access to toilets may be the headline, but it's as much about the bigger problems within schools (poor sen provision, Andrew tate culture, ridiculous uniform policies etc). Even if the kids themselves dont really understand tgat is what they are fed up about. Unisex toilets are just the flashpoint.

We have atm however got a culture of rights and protesting for them. I can appreciate why teachers and nurses are protesting, but these are people with responsibilities. If we aren't demonstrating how to protest through the political system, we can't be surprised when our teenagers chose direct action either. When you see kids copying nurses at the side of the Road appealing for support from motorists, you really do have a law of unintended consequences.

The big problem is that School property is being damaged in these protests, kids are being scared and teachers are going to be even less likely to get into or continue teaching.

These protests are actually deeply counterproductive, both to school culture and to the culture of society as a whole. We want to teach kids to pish for change through legitimate means not through riot

Legally at secondary school age you do and your parents can be prescuted if you are not.

Well I support the kids protesting. Single sex loos and facilities are a human right.

As far as going to the loo during class time - I appreciate this is difficult but I think it has to be allowed. Can they not have a designated 'loo monitor' to chaperone students? A policy that only one child is allowed out of the classroom at a time?

At school? Yes you do.

That’s awful.
Ive been doing permanent supply in a school and I got told off by a teacher on Friday for letting students go to the toilet during the lesson and that I wasn’t allowed to let anyone else out.
yes some students take the piss, but I’m not going to penalise the (majority) genuine ones because of the (minority) pisstakers.

I just think unisex toilets in a hormone fuelled secondary school is just a bad idea full stop. The poor safeguarding team. Stupid idea

You can be home schooled.

No. You don't. You can be home schooled.

Yes but that isn't relevant for how the children that have to be at school feel

You treat children like prisoners, you’re gonna get prison-style riots. In fact prisoners get more rights, at least they have a pot to piss in.

The way schoolchildren are treated in Britain is appalling. We gave up our state school place and now pay a fortune to a private school so that our children can be treated like human beings. We shouldn’t have to do that.

But it's the difference between school and prison. You don't have to go into school, you can leave school, you can go on holiday and you don't even have to attend one if you'd rather not. I'm pretty sure none of that applies to a prison.

If you're seriously likening schools and prisons, you really should speak to some ex-prisoners or prison guards because you have no idea.

Siri what is "an analogy"?

No you can't.

Unless you are homeshooled you have to be in school legally. Your parents can't take you out for a holiday legally (hence getting fined). You absolutely cannot (are not even able to leave the school during the school day as there are usually ginormous gates and fences. Secondary schools are not open places.

I don't think the comparison to prisons is necessarily entirely correct but on the other hand neither are the points you raise. Schools can be pretty claustrophobic places for those who don't want or are struggling to be there.

Don't be so facetious. Of course they have to be there, unless your going to homeschool your children which 99% of parents can't/don't want to do.

This face does not then mean we and they have to put up with conditions that are shameful.

😀

Do some posters think that anywhere that has rules is like a prison? 🙄

I think there are two separate issues here. Unisex toilets are a real issue and need to be addressed. There are ways of doing it which are safe, but really only with a new-build - you can't just designate old style toilets as unisex without giving rise to genuine safeguarding concerns.

Not letting students use the toilets during lessons is a completely different issue. It is not treating children like prisoners, denying their human rights or any of the other garbage spouted on twitter. A teenager should be able to sit through an hour's lesson without having to go to the toilet. The teachers do - as do employees in many lines of work. Unfortunately teenagers do act like idiots when unsupervised (nature of the beast) and go on their phones, eat, vape, bully each other, throw rubbish in the toilets, graffiti etc etc. Believe it or not many students actually prefer to have a toilet to use at breaktime that doesn't have a baguette stuffed down the u-bend!

I’m a teacher and we only have mixed sex toilets for staff. I hate it. Honestly, the protests will have no effect. It’s not anything to do with being “woke” (hate that expression btw!), it’ll be cost cutting measures.

I suppose it doesn't occur to students to restore the single sex loos. labelling them with signs produced in the ICT department, or art room, and police access themselves.

The mother of a student at a named school in Hampshire (DM article) said this:
'The boys have got this thing about putting their phone over the toilet or under the doors to try to get pictures of them' (the girls - my addition).
If the cubicles are not floor-to-ceiling with doors to the floor then that must be illegal, surely? How has the school been able to do this, because my understanding is that the toilets in a unisex lavatory must be totally enclosed, so it should not be possible to put phones under them? I am appalled. This is such total disregard for safeguarding and the dignity and privacy of girls. How are we letting this happen?

I've been in FE colleges with only mixed sex toilets. I don't like it. However as an adult, if I had an issue about such arrangements I would speak to my line manager. If I got no joy, I would escalate it to a more senior person. I might write a letter and have it signed by a number of people. I might speak to HR and lodge a formal complaint. I would read up on the law in this area to inform what I said. I would not 'have a protest', nor would I throw chairs around, break property, make a huge gathering in a playground and generally disrupt my workplace for an hour or so ensuring that normal work could not take place and that those working there experienced very high levels of stress and risk the reputation of where I worked. If we should be helping teenagers to understand how to get what they want, encouraging them to ''protest' in this way without first exploring the normal channels to effect change is hardly helping them to understand how to then behave in the workplace and make themselves heard.

As a retired teacher I agree with you on students going to the loo during lessons. It can be fraught as the toilets are unsupervised and one student asking tends to lead to a flood (sorry!) of them asking and can cause major disruption. As to rules, agree too. Schools like Michaela are very rule-based and work well for their students, with good exam outcomes and good behaviour outcomes (which immediately plays into student safety, ability to learn and to succeed). Rules are necessary and also protective. The lack of rules over unisex toilets is worrying - especially if boys can take photos or unlock doors from outside (I know doors must be possible to open from outside, but surely not with a 2p coin or similar?) which has to mean the facility does not conform to the law.