Parents left furious after school removes doors on girls' and boys' toilets
Rhiannon Ingle
Featured Image Credit: Clive Thompson Miscellaneous / Alamy Stock Photo Radharc Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Parents have been left outraged after a secondary school made the decision to remove the doors from student toilets.
Parrenthorn High, based in Bury, Greater Manchester, has recently come under fire following the school's recent choice to take the doors off in two toilet areas.
The decision was announced during a school assembly and stated that the doors to the toilets, not the actual cubicles, had been done away with in an effort 'to keep pupils as safe as possible and improve the school environment,' the Manchester Evening News reports.
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However, according to the news outlet, many parents and children were not on-board with the decision.
One angry parent stated: "The privacy has gone (...) Do you really want to adjust yourself at the mirrors in full view of anyone passing by? Especially when a teenager, I think not."
Another wondered if the choice was a preventative one to stop instances like bullying or vaping, saying: "Is it to stop bullying? Bullying does not confine itself to the toilets, so address the bullying. Is it to stop kids vaping? Get a bathroom monitor and trust me those kids will find other places.
"Privacy is a human right and it’s being eroded one step at a time."
Clearly furious by Parrenthorn High's decision, another parent argued: "I don't agree with this at all. And we were not told this was going to happen either.
"Why should the children be made to feel uncomfortable going to the toilet?"
However, as reported by Manchester Evening News, Headteacher Chris Bell stated that the door decision was in fact discussed at a meeting just before summer, but 'not a huge amount of parents' attended.
Bell explained: "We have spent a long time carefully thinking through and designing this."
"We wouldn't have done this if we didn't think it was appropriate,
"Like all schools we want to make every single part as safe as possible and make sure the pupils - particularly the younger kids who don't know it as well as the older ones - feel comfortable in there."
Bell added that 'privacy had not been infringed' as the decision was about 'positive supervision' and that the aim was to have students 'feeling as comfortable as possible.'
"We do think this is a positive thing for the school moving forward," Chris Bell concluded.
Tyla has reached out to Parrenthorn High for comment.