Another victim of mixed sex toilets

[BlackeyedSusan]

www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-schoolgirl-taken-hospital-after-26418069

Came across this report from one of the cities round here.

Head injury, bruises, boys kicking doors down trying to take photos of girls using the toilets...

Horrific.

I wonder if anything can be done by Ofsted.

This is a clear safeguarding risk.

Every school that has mixed sex toilets should be rated Inadequate by Ofsted.

They would soon change their tune.

This is despicable

This made my blood boil, I’m so sad for that poor girl. Completely avoidable too - all they had to do was ensure girls had the separate facilities they need for their dignity, safety and privacy. Her injury looks awful and there needs to be real accountability and meaningful action taken to ensure it cannot happen again.

As for the dignity aspect of things, I too can remember feeling mortified at the rustle of sanitary products in case other girls heard and knew I was “on” - imagine the humiliation and fear when boys are around too. More girls are going to start avoiding going to the loo and will end up getting water infections. More girls will go off sick to avoid being at school when they are on their period, and this will affect their education. FFS. This has to stop - now! Stop erasing the female sex class and give us our f*ing stuff back.

I notice some parents are worried their sons will be falsely accused. Male feelings topping female ones, again.

Good point, I have emailed Ofsted too, reporting a safeguarding concern.

60% of transgender people over 16 have been attacked because they are forced to use the bathrooms and changing rooms that match their biological sex, rather than their identified gender. Transgender people are four times more likely to be subjected to violence and suffer far more risk of violence and sexual violence than cisgendered people. This story has nothing to do with transgender people inflicting violence, it is to do with a school which has stupidly allowed cubicle-style bathrooms to be mixed gender. That's nuts. A sensible school would have single-sex cubicle toilets and one-person enclosed toilets that are unisex. It is not the transgender people which are the risk here.

It’s not a recent thing, though, the mixed toilets. These shared facilities have been around since the start of the 2000s, with a row of toilets on one side for the boys, and a row of toilets on the other for the girls, with just some hand basins between, with no actual wall.

@Sladurche
I’m not sure about where your stats are from, and they do look a bit suspect, but apart from that, yes we know it’s not people identifying as transgender that’s the problem. It’s people being violent, however they identify. And usually that means men (or in this case boys) hurting women. That’s what we keep saying and what we get called bigots for.

@Sladurche why the need to drop all those "stats"? Why not concentrate on the issue, which is girls being attacked in mixed sex toilets and a school that apparently is ineffective at dealing with male violence?

Disgusting.

Males no matter how they present are a risk to females.

So mixed sex toilets in any way shape or form should not be allowed in a school. (Disabled toilet an exception).

It might not be sensible for a male presenting as female to use the male toilets, but sharing facilities with girls is absolutely not the solution.

If my child presented as trans, I would be arguing with the school to provide toilets and other facilities that were private and did not cross the boundaries of other children.

Let's keep all kids safe. Girls (the actual ones) matter too.

The point here is that mixed sex toilets are causing actual harm and distress to girls. It isn't transgender pupils but boys that are the problem here, and the answer is to have toilets segregated by sex, with the addition of some separate fully enclosed toilets (with full height doors and sinks) that anyone can use, however they identify.
It is not transphobic to want single sex facilities, or to want girls and women to be safe from male violence and bad behaviour.

When this new design for school toilets with the boy cubicles on one side, girls the other and open to the corridor was first proposed I'm sure it was claimed that they would be supervised by staff and it would reduce bullying.

I remember thinking "wonder how long that will last" and looks like I was right to.

I totally agree. And the bastards that made this possible have no place working with kids. Or any public for that matter. I hope jobs are lost over this, because they are just as responsible as the scummy boys.

Quite. God forbid we discuss and lament girls suffering harm due to mixed sex toilets. The very idea.

Don't tell us - no women and girls anywhere have demanded that single sex toilets, changing rooms and showers should be removed. It's Stonewall and the other well funded groups insisting that the safety of girls must be sacrificed for the purpose of validating men and boys claiming to be women.

They could have argued for the provision of additional mixed sex spaces - but they didn't want that. It's access to unconsenting women and girls that they want.

60% of transgender people over 16 have been attacked because they are forced to use the bathrooms and changing rooms that match their biological sex, rather than their identified gender. Transgender people are four times more likely to be subjected to violence and suffer far more risk of violence and sexual violence than cisgendered people.

1. Your source for the unsubstantiated stats?

2. I hadn’t noticed anyone mentioning trans (before you did), although I’d agree if anyone suggested the push to ‘unisex’ loos is largely as a result of schools being stonewalled

3. I agree with your later point that the design of these loos is incredibly poor. I’d place good money on the results being down to headteachers trying to achieve the stonewall goal using a budget much too limited to ensure a good outcome.

But that’s where they’re then to blame; for not having risk assessed the project and realised they couldn’t keep the kids in their care safe using the proposed design.

God I am so glad I went to an all girls school back before being trans was a thing.

Starting periods is so hard, I remember being mortified at making a noise while changing my pads at school and that was around other girls. I can't imagine how terrifying it must be to have some animal of a boy kicking the door down while just using the toilet.

This new unisex toilet thing really makes my blood boil, girls will miss school, they will get sick from holding in wee all day. It's shocking that schools care more about pandering to a very small minority of people than they do about girls. For the nice boys it must also be hard, because decent men/boys do not want to invade female spaces but have little choice if they want to use these toilets themselves.

If the school carries on with this farce, the pupils between them should decide which toilets will be boys toilets and which ones should be girls. Then the decent boys should call out other boys if they see them going into the girls and vice versa.

"Your source for the unsubstantiated stats?" there is plenty if you look for it. On a purely personal note, a dear friend of mine was transgender and killed themselves a couple of years ago after being bullied and abused most of their life by people who were absolutely convinced that they could not possibly be who they said they were.

You quote stats, the onus is on you to provide evidence they are reasonable. Otherwise we can and will simply dismiss them.

I am sorry about your friend, it's a tragedy that anyone finds themselves thinking that's their best choice.

No one on this thread has mentioned trans people or discussed their chosen identities. We are discussing girls and their safety after a child was badly injured.

Sladurche I'm sorry about your friend, but that doesn't change the fact that female spaces must be female only. I hate this narrative that we must throw female safety under the bus because if we don't, a small minority of people may commit suicide. Do you think unisex toilets are good for the mental health of all of these girls?

Can you imagine being a teenage girl, menstruating and needing to change a tampon, with boys looking over and under doors, using cameras and trying the kick the door in?!!

Sooner or later a girl is going to die of toxic shock syndrome due to not changing a tampon. Sooner or later girls going to be raped, assaulted, have pictures and videos passed around the school or put online.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

I think the anger around me standing up for transgender people ignores the fact that I am a feminist who has two daughters who I would like to think are being kept safe at school and I agree that stalls should not be unisex. I also think that schools who do not let girls go to the bathroom during lessons or lock the toilets during lesson time are also utterly wrong. However, what I am saying is that I have seen this done correctly in schools, where single bathrooms and changing spaces are made available for transgender pupils. I am dumbfounded about a school that thinks allowing boys and girls to mix in stall bathrooms is acceptable.

And also the assertion that "males are a danger to girls" and "people with penises" is pretty sexist towards men and a bit discriminatory towards transgender people who are far more likely to be victims of assault than perpetrators.

Who is angry at you? People have not posted angry posts at you.

If you agree that there is an issue and you agree that the solution is providing mixed sex toilets either genuinely as an addition for those who choose to use them, or for providing safe single occupancy toilets with self contained sinks etc... then why the need to drop in irrelevant stats and anecdotes about your friend and their unrelated issues?