UK parents keep their kids home from school after it removes toilet wall

  • 23/01/2018

Parents at a UK school have been keeping their children at home in protest after one of the walls to a toilet block was removed in an attempt to improve safety at the school.

St Mary's College in Wallasey says the wall was removed from the girls toilet block in an effort to stop smoking, bullying and truancy, The Independent reports.

However girls at the school say it makes students feel unsafe and some parents are keeping their children at home in protest.

Mother Tara Hodgson Jones says initially she thought her daughter was overreacting, but once she saw a photo of the toilet cubicles exposed to the hallway she was outraged.

"My daughter was bullied in year 10 and that was in the classroom, the yard and the lunch hall, so thinking that taking a toilet wall down will stop it is stupid," she told The Independent.

"As for smoking, put alarms in. As for skipping class, use frosted glass so teachers can see shapes when they walk past.

"My daughter feels scared and unsafe. It's shocking."

Ms Hodgson says she tried to speak to the school about it and was rebuffed so elected to not send her daughter to school until it is remedied.

In response to both local criticism and global media attention, St Mary's has now announced they will install a "modesty screen" to the toilets.

In a statement on Twitter, the school said it understood the students' complaints and it would work to remedy it.

"We will be making a further modification to the adaptation to introduce a modesty screen within the toilets that will address the concerns expressed," said head teacher Anthony Boyle.

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