18 hours ago
Parents hit out at 'prison' shutters on toilets during lessons at York school
PARENTS have hit out after York's largest school installed shutters across all the main toilets to prevent pupils from using them during lessons.
Archbishop Holgate's School has put in pull-down shutters so the five main toilet areas across the Hull Road site cannot be used by its 1,900 students when they should be in class and the toilets are unsupervised.
Photos taken by pupils of the new measures prompted the launch of a 'scrap the shutters' petition. It has been signed by more than 343 people and calls on the school 'to help give our kids their basic human right to use a toilet in school back'.
The shutters prevent access to the toilets during lesson times when the main toilet areas are not supervised. Image: teacher Lucie Pond sought to reassure parents, saying there was no toilet ban and no change to the toilet policy, but the shutters had been installed for 'safeguarding reasons'.
Students are encouraged to take comfort breaks during the 20-minute morning break and the 40-minute lunch period when the main toilets are unlocked and monitored.
An accessible toilet is also available in every building, in areas where staff are present, for anyone who needs it throughout the day.
Mrs Pond told The Press: 'We have seen an increasing amount of vandalism in the toilets. That comes with a cost in terms of staff and repair and replacement costs. Equally, these are areas of school that are unsupervised during lesson time so for safeguarding, we feel it is necessary to not have them open."
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She said shutters were chosen because a door would not have been wide enough to fill the large gap that leads to the toilets.
But some parents who backed the petition said the school now looks like a prison while others criticised the 'waste of money'.
Others voiced concerns for children who need unrestricted toilet access for medical reasons; for girls at certain times of the month who might be too embarrassed to ask to go; and for pupils who may have accidents if not allowed to take comfort breaks when they need to.
Andrew Fraser told The Press one of his daughters had sent him a photo of the locked-up toilets at the end of the first day back at school and he had contacted the school and board of governors.
"They told me children have locked themselves in the toilets to miss lessons – but that's what every generation of children going to school has done.
'All the girls are disgusted by it. If they have a period, they are unable to get into the toilets. They are expecting the whole school to go in the break and lunch times.
'These shutters wouldn't have been cheap. They could have got two staff members to patrol the toilets instead.
'I have three children going through the school and a fourth who would be going there but, at the moment, we are not even thinking about it.'
In her letter to parents, Mrs Pond said: 'Teachers are trusted to use their professional judgement when students ask to leave lessons to use the toilet. If permission is granted, students are issued a pass allowing them to access the designated toilets that remain open.
'Any student with a medical pass is allowed to leave lessons as frequently as needed and without question.
'We fully recognise that there will be times when students need to go during lessons. Our aim is to balance the genuine needs of students with our responsibility to ensure a safe, secure, and well-supervised environment for all.'
