While it’s useful and respectful for all schools to include parents when they change something that affects their children,the oppositional stance taken by some parents – including parents whose children don’t even attend Clifton Springs Primary School – was way over the top.
Unisex toilets are not a gateway to increased sexualised behaviours at schools. They are not a sentinel to sexual predators wandering past the school. And they are not a concept that should have us reaching for the nearest pearls to clutch.
Before we even start to discuss the concept of unisex toilets in schools,it’s worth considering just how new this concept really is in the first place. The vast majority of us live in a house with at least one person of the opposite sex. Doesn’t that,by logic,make the family bathroom unisex?
On planes,too. Then there’s cafes,restaurants,entertainment venues,universities and libraries,many of which now offer unisex bathroom options. None of these industries have reported an increase in sexualised or anti-social behaviour. In fact,it’s regularly the opposite.
As anyone who has been a kindergarten or pre-school teacher,as I’ve been,will tell you that the open-plan nature of school facilities,necessitated by having to help students of that age,can result in seeing,hearing and smelling things that several years of therapy won’t erase.
Far from being a woke fad or more supposed evidence that lefty groomers are taking over our schools,we should see unisex toilets as a useful way to prepare students for the real world.
The evidence points clearly to us showing more respect for each other and the facilities when these spaces are shared.