Another South Australian high school makes the decision to remove toilet doors

A second South Australian high school has made the decision to remove doors from student toilets, outraging parents.

The move by Modbury High School comes days after the principal of Golden Grove High School in Adelaide sent a letter to parents and caregivers about the school’s decision to remove doors from toilets. 

Photos of the student toilets at Modbury High School, in Adelaide’s north-eastern suburbs, shows urinals that are in view of students who walk by. 

There are reports a ‘smell’ has begun to seep throughout the school’s corridors as a result of the alteration. 

South Australia’s Education Department had not enforced the removal of doors from toilet facilities and the decision was believed to have been made by the high school. 

The school had locked outside cubicles which had forced students to use the toilets that are now without an exterior door. 

A mother of two children who attend the school claims ‘privacy and use of toilets had been an issue for at least 12 months’.  

She claimed that as a result, some students had held on instead of going to the toilet for such a long period of time that it had ’caused urinary tract infections’, she told The Advertiser.

The mother claims some students had even resorted to ‘urinating on the walls’. 

‘This is putting children through psychological and physical distress and harm,’ she said. 

‘The school just randomly took them off with no explanation to parents.

She said she made many failed attempts to reach out to the school, the Education Department and former SA education minister John Garner.

The decision by Modbury High Schoool followed a letter sent to parents and caregivers by the Principal of Golden Grove High School, Peter Kuss, advising of changes to the toilet facilities that including removing doors. 

‘New toilets provided as part of the recent capital works project… have been constructed to meet the new standards,’ Mr Kuss told parents.

This included providing lockable, non-gendered, individual cubicles, with handwashing included inside the cubicle, accessed directly from common spaces or open corridors.

Mr Kuss claimed the school was ‘taking the steps to modify the design of the existing toilet blocks so they mimic as much as possible the look and feel of the toilet facilities in the new buildings’.

‘Hence, we will be removing the outer doors leading into the existing toilet blocks so the toilets in these spaces are more easily accessible from the foyers.’

Mr Kuss added: ‘We believe this action will provide greater safety for student usage and will more closely align our older toilet blocks with the new standards.’

The changes were criticised by parents, one mother saying her children ‘no longer feel safe and feel their privacy has been compromised.’

‘The cubicles on some of the toilets can be seen by students and teachers walking past,’ she added.

‘I’ve had other parents tell me their kids will not use the toilets either.’

An Education Department spokesperson has claimed that the school’s toilets are adequately private.

‘Students’ privacy isn’t compromised. All the cubicles have lockable doors and only hand washing areas are visible from hallways or foyers.’