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Unisex toilets to cut out the school bullies
Last updated at 12:07pm on 25.04.07
Unisex toilets should be built at schools to stop bullying, according to the Government.
Guidelines issued by the Department for Education today also recommend installing glass-panelled walls between hand-washing areas, scrapping urinals and installing trough sinks to make flooding more difficult.
The recommendations should help children who avoid going to the loo at school because they fear bullies and dirty facilities.
The Government will also suggest increasing background noise in lavatories, possibly by the use of a ventilation system, to ensure "aural privacy".
All schools being rebuilt or refurbished under the £45 billion Building Schools for the Future programme will be expected to apply the guidelines. Tim Bayliss, the chief executive of Partnerships for Schools, the agency responsible for the rebuilding programme, said lavatories are hotspots for bullies.
As part of the guidelines, hand- washing areas could be moved to semi-open corridors near the cubicles, where they would be visible to staff and would remove the need for CCTV.
Each school is also to build a self-contained lavatory with its own sink, which could be used by pupils when they need more privacy.
Partnerships for Schools said the cost of installing new lavatories would be offset by the savings in the long run.
Reader views (6)
Are you kidding? What nutter came up with this one?
- John Horton, Phoenix, Arizona USA
I'm not keen on the unisex thing, girls would be intimidated. But I am pro single-sex schools anyway.
However, there are some really good other ideas. The 'aural' privacy one, and the obscured glass too.
Simply going to the toilet in a secondary school, really can be running the gauntlet.
- Paul Jardine, Bromley
When I was in primary school, ages 6 through 11, we had toliet cubicles without doors. Unfortunately, a girl who started puberty before the other girls, was bullied unmercifully when other girls saw she had her menstrual period. I lived in fear of puberty.
- Kathleen H, Connecticut, USA
Oh yes, even a confident girl who isn't being bullied is going to be really happy at running the gauntlet of a gang of boys everytime she needs to go to the lavatory. Especially during her menstrual period.
I can hear the taunts now.
Stupid nonsense.
The way to stop bullying is to tackle the bullies. There is little to deter them at the moment.
- Cam, UK
What? How on earth is changing the design of a toilet going to deter bullying? Do the government believe that bullying is predominently based on toilet habits? They really have lost the plot.
- Trevor Roll, London
If there is such a threat of bullying these days then the toilets should either have a full time attendant installed or replaced with single toilets rather than blocks of cubicles. Toilets should not be mixed, school children are at a very sensitive age and deserve the opportunity to dignified, private lavatory facilities.
- Jane, London
