School hygiene : policy of not providing toilet paper, soap or towels

N

nt00deep

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My daughter's school (Infants) seems to have a policy of not providing toilet paper, soap or towels in the kids bathrooms. It is not so much that on occasion they are not replenished. They are simply never there. My daughter now brings in a small pack of tissues in her bag.

She was raised to wash hands, use soap, & dry properly, she then goes to school to be faced with an environment that does not provide the basics.

I know we need to address it with the school directly, but just wondering is this common?

Our older child went to the same school, and apparently it was the same while he was there, but we never knew. When I asked him, he said in a casual way, "oh yeah, there was never any soap in school".

Thankfully he did not unlearn any of the good habits in the three years he was there.
 
Re: School hygiene

I'd certainly talk to the school, though it is my understanding that no money is provided to pay for these things and it is up to the parents to fundraise for them (I may well be wrong, it's something I heard recently).
 
Re: School hygiene

That's pretty appalling really, given that much of the current woes in our hospitals is put down to bad hygiene practices. Soap and towels are pretty cheap.
 
Re: School hygiene

It would be interesting to take a look at the teachers' bathrooms in the same school. If there is paper, soap, and towels there, they should adopt the same standards for the childrens' bathrooms. If not, it would tell you a lot about the standards of the principal.........
 
Re: School hygiene

Pish....we never had soap or towels when I went to school and, on many occasions, no toilet paper either – the accepted solution was to dry your hands on the jumper of the boy in front of you! - and that was in primary school.

In secondary the toilets were a separate block, with no glass in the windows and a sink, but no running water.

Then I went to school in America where the toilets were cleaned every day, and we had soap dispensers and hand dryers – what a bunch of softies!
 
Re: School hygiene

That sounds very unpleasant for the children. My earliest school (convent school) was the same, but I changed to a different school from 2nd or 3rd class onwards and toilet facilities were fine.

Id be very interested to hear the schools take on this - especially considering your son experienced same - its not an isolated incident.
 
Re: School hygiene

My daughters primary school has no soap as a policy. They have hand-driers, toilet roll and the toilets are kept clean.

The no-soap policy was seemingly brought in after years of soap being dropped and making the floor a hazard for slipping. Liquid soap is expensive and the despensers get clogged and has not been a success.

The parents council have broached the subject a few times, with no luck.

It is not ideal, but I can live with it, as the kids are expected to wash and
dry their hands and the standards in the school are high.

However, a total lack of towels and toilet roll, I would find totoally
unacceptable and would be complaing, directly and/or through
the parents council.

BTW, it is not strictly true that "money is not provided for these things" as was quoted, but it is not far from the
truth. . The schools get a payment per pupil per year. The school must pay for everything except the teachers
salary out of this - soap, toliet roll, cleaning equipment, heating, electricity. The money does not come close
to covering the bills and every school is funding raising the difference
The school decide the priority of where the money goes, its hard to justify toilet roll not being high
on the list.
 
All pupils in our children's school have to bring own toilet bags every day. This contains toilet paper, soap and towel. has been that way since school opened over 12 years ago.
 
Re: School hygiene

huskerdu said:
It is not ideal, but I can live with it, as the kids are expected to wash and dry their hands and the standards in the school are high.
Click to expand...

How can the kids be expected to wash their hands properly when there is no soap?
 
And there was me thinking my 4 year old was telling me whopers!

According to xavier junior there is a no poo rule in his school. There being no jax roll might account for that then...luckile he is an evening person. God help xavier junior II.

Also forbidden is running, playing football or playing on the grass "it isn't the yard" I'm informed.

What next?
 
A no poo rule ? You've gotta be sh**ting us . . . pun intended.

This is most bizarre set up I have ever heard of. I just checked with mini-zag and as expected his school provides soap (liquid), hand driers and toilet paper.

Any less and I would be seriously concerned about the spread of disease around the school.

How on earth can any premises servicing hundreds of people think they can safely operate like this ?

z
 
Schools have a duty of care to provide a safe and healthy environment for their pupils. I would find it very difficult to see how a policy of not providing toilet paper, soap and towels would be compatible with that duty. I certainly wouldn't tolerate it in the school my children attend.
 
Dunno, it has never happened yet. On further questioning (do they take the Omertà in schools these days?) it appears to be that they are strongly discouraged rather outright forbidden
 
xavier said:
Dunno, it has never happened yet. On further questioning (do they take the Omertà in schools these days?) it appears to be that they are strongly discouraged rather outright forbidden
Click to expand...

I dont mean to be distasteful here but it just would not be possible to 'strongly discourage' me if the need was upon me.

Im absolutely astounded at this thread, I cannot believe that schools have 'no poo' policies - children have bodily functions!!!! if they need to poo they need to poo - and for a school to not facilitate that is beyond belief!

Is there not a huge risk of disease spreading - no toilet paper, no soap?

Is there not also a risk of children developing constipation problems from holding back from what is a normal bodily function?

xavier - have you talked to any other parents whose children are in this school - I wonder how many are aware of this policy - given the Omerta?
 
Now that I think of it, I don't think we ever had toilet roll in one of my national and one of my secondary schools. I doubt we had soap or towels either, but can't remember. I do remember once having a really bad runny nose and having to blow it on A4 paper as I'd used up my own tissues. Fortunatly my body was otherwise like clockwork and never needed toilet paper during school hours anyway. That was in the 80s. Some things haven't changed.
 
I remember my primary days when where if we had to poo we went to the principles office and asked for paper.
The situation panned out like this...
You put your hand up and depending on the humour of the teacher he allowed you ask him a question.
You asked "An bhfuil cead agam dul..." etc and you had to say bosca leithreas to emphesize it was a number 2.
If you asked using incorrect Irish you were refused.
Upon asking correctly you were sent to the principles office to ask for paper (again in Irish).
If you got the irish wrong you were sent back to class to ask your teacher how to get the sentence right "as gaelige".
You then returned to the principles office.
If the principle wasn't there you went without paper.

In the end your body just adapted. I wet my pants once in high infants because I wasn't allowed go to the bathroom. Then the whole class were encouraged to laugh at me.
Thankfully, secondary school was a breath of fresh air....
 
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