Girls and school toilets

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1kv8vxzn99o

'A UK-wide survey by Caerphilly-based company phs Group, external, in partnership with menstrual justice charity Irise International, found 65% of students were unable to access toilets at their school freely at any time.
Of these, 29% needed permission from a teacher to leave the classroom and 15% required a pass to be issued.
Of the 501 teachers who took part, 5% reported school toilets being locked at some point during the school day, including break times, with 4% saying they were shut all the time.
And16% said they had prevented a student who had periods from using the bathroom during class, with reasons including students wanting to skip lessons or meet friends.'

This is making school impossible for girls.

(It's the BBC, so they are carefully avoiding any mention of 'girls' - it's all 'students', neatly obscuring the issue that this affects females more than males.)

Yeah, it's not just the rules that create anxiety, although they're a problem too, it's also the knowledge- in many schools - that the toilets may not be male free. I simply wouldn't have gone to school during my period if that had been the case then, I'd support my daughter in doing the same if her school was abandoning safeguarding for girls (thankfully she has a school where the adults are doing safeguarding properly - so single sex toilets).

I've been saying for years I think now on here that I bet if anyone looked they see schools with mixed sex toilets have higher absence of female pupils.

And the inability of the BBC to name the type of human that menstruates is part of the problem. It's GIRLS - FEMALE CHILDREN BBC. FFS.

And part of the reason toilets are locked because of behavioural and safeguarding issues is because they're MIXED SEX.

Honestly, you really could not make this shit up.

Totally agree with pp. If you have private toilets, then you have to start reducing access because they start being misused. Especially if they are mixed sex. Boys will muck about with sanitary products so they have to be restricted. It’s obvious and well reported in the media.

Report on Welsh school toilets:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/drug-dealing-drinking-dirt-problems-28517175

Its obvious you can’t have free sanitary products in these toilets.

Problem is, as a teacher, who works in a school with single sex toilets, an awful lot of bullying, vandalism, vaping, truanting, phone calls etc take place in toilets.
Pupils leave lessons to meet with their friends at agreed times. There is nobody monitoring the toilets during lesson times, we just don’t have the staff. The toilet doors in our school have been kicked in and broken on multiple occasions. Toilet seats ripped from the toilets. Even drug deals taking place.
one way to reduce these major safeguarding concerns is to limit access to when someone can be on duty.
Ofcourse if pupils ask me to use the toilet during lessons, I usually let them them go, but it’s more often than not, the same pupils who are causing trouble. The pupils that need to go only very rarely ask.
This of course presents a much bigger problem of how do we keep toilets safe for all pupils at school at all times. I do not have the answer to this. But unrestricted access at all times is not safe either.
I do not agree with the toilets being locked.

I don’t actually think this is an issue related to mixed sex toilets, it’s more about limiting access to the toilets (any toilets).

Agree with this - at DD’s previous (all girls) school they had a terrible problem with bullying/vaping/vandalism in the toilets so had to crack down on use outside break times as the alternative was to have toilet monitors during lesson time, which wasn’t deemed cost effective. Girls with a pre-arranged “pass” for health/SEND reasons were of course exempt. This cut down on a lot of the bad behaviour and disruption. Not ideal of course, but there is no perfect solution.

What do girls do when they need the toilet in other situations where it might not be possible to go immediately? G whilst travelling, plane/car/bus etc. Presumably they have strategies in place for these situations. Could these not also be applied in school?

Leak
avoid going out
take a change of clothing
buy more clothes whilst out
sit on a bin bag, towel, coat, whatever’s to hand

None of the above helps a girl at school with a smaller bag. When I was a teacher we used to have a range of skirts/trousers for girls at reception they could change into and bring back.

Interesting. If I was going somewhere that toilet access might be tricky and there was the slightest chance that I would come on my period I would wear period pants that day. I would have thought that would be sufficient to protect enough between classes.

It’s so easy to plan if there is a chance they might come on their period but, for girls whose periods haven’t settled into a regular cycle, should they wear period pants/pads/tampons just in case?

Girls suffering from period poverty may not have period pants/sufficient tampons and pads to be sure of being able to contain a flood. Solutions which may seem simple to an adult may not be to all girls.

Agree. Adults can freely access loos at work. Children should be able to.

Maybe, but it affects girls more than boys. My son just doesn't go to the loo at school (for all the same issues you list, they are locked). He avoids drinking anything at all so that he doesn't need to. Girls obviously can't do that as easily - more likely to lead to UTIs, plus periods.

Abstaining from drinking is a really bad idea, girls or boys.

Not go. I know I did and my daughters as well. On certain days when you know it is going to be bad you cancel plans.

I am very saddened to read that instead of focusing on improving the situations with school toilets, the message is girls should just adapt to the inhumane policy of denying toilets breaks instead demanding schools put in the effort of stopping problems in toilets.
Do better.

But adults don’t generally display anti social behaviour in the toilets, bully other colleagues, vandalise them, vape in them etc.
Children and teenagers don’t have developed brains like adults and the toilets are not treated in the same way as a workplace.
Any adult that was found to vandalise a toilet or kick a door in or film someone else on the toilet would probably be sacked. You can’t exclude children from school for those behaviours, so it continues.
For the safety of everyone, the toilets do need to be monitored so allowing constant access would be difficult.
Also it is incredibly difficult and disruptive to teach when pupils are constantly coming and going. There’s a reason why when you go to the theatre, they limit comings and goings to certain parts of the show. Children really do choose to go to the toilet when they are bored or the work is hard or they just can’t be bothered.
Nobody wants anybody to have an accident and generally I aim to let most go that ask, but I certainly use delaying tactics, or point out it’s only x mins til the next lesson etc.
Plenty of jobs don’t allow unlimited access to the toilet.

For interest, I teach a practical subject and when we are doing practical work, I have pretty much zero requests for the toilet. Theory lessons, every lesson, someone needs it.

Agree. Adults can freely access loos at work. Children should be able to.

Trues in most offices. Less true in warehouses, factories and call centres.

Doesn't make it right for adults or kids of course.

I see this as a symptom of the complete break down of discipline in a lot of schools- solve that, get rid of the worst offenders and you can reintroduce open access to toilets. Doesn't help much in the meantime for this poor girl or others like her.

Using a mixed sex toilet in a school was something that 'peaked' me- I noticed graffiti on the wall of the cubicle, which was a voting system for the girl with the 'best' boobs. Imagine seeing that as a young girl, just terrible.

@ArabellaScott it's awful your son feels he has to do that. When my DS was younger, a friend of his had kidney stones, really not pleasant.

I agree that children should be able to access toilets when they need to. Was just thinking about solutions in the absence of this and looking at other situations where toilets are not easily accessible. I don’t think this is a new problem though. 30 years ago when I was at school I hated using the loos and would avoid at all costs.

Well, sure, but what's the alternative? Kids are required to be at school, all day, and there are either no toilets, or they are often not allowed to use them.

You can’t exclude children from school for those behaviours, so it continues.
...
I see this as a symptom of the complete break down of discipline in a lot of schools- solve that, get rid of the worst offenders and you can reintroduce open access to toilets.

Yep. FWIW, the boys' loos are generally hit far worse by vandalism etc.