Gender neutral facilities don’t make sense

Madam, – Two Scottish Green Party representatives recently advocated genderneutral toilets for schools (Letters, The Courier, February 16).

They said individual cubicles ensure safety and there are “commonly” fewer toilet facilities for women and girls.

Cubicles will not stop mischievous boys from harassing girls. Even separate toilet facilities sometimes fail to do that. Having girls and boys sharing the same toilet areas will just make matters worse.

My heart goes out to staff who may have to supervise a same-sex toilet arrangement.

In the traditional school situation, women members of staff supervise the girls’ toilets and male members the boys’

As for there being more toilet facilities for boys than for girls, that was not my experience as an assistant headmaster in charge of a school annexe.

The boys had vandalised their facilities so much that the larger toilet, located in the playground, was permanently in a state of disrepair and locked. They had access to only one small toilet area inside the school and it too was vandalised, leaving only two urinals and one cubicle in working order. The girls had several separate toilet facilities, all indoors.

I had the boys’ main toilet facility repaired and organised toilet supervision by boy prefects and staff. The vandalism stopped and the boys could use their main toilets again.

Same-sex wards have been tried in hospitals and are popular with neither males nor females.

I spent time in a ward of Perth Royal Infirmary when lack of accommodation meant a woman had to move into a bed opposite. Not only was she embarrassed, but most of the men too. It made getting out of bed and going to the toilet or to shower a much more complicated process than when we were all the same sex.

Life is indeed very complex these days. A woman had herself declared male, then fertility treatment enabled her to give birth. Now she wants the birth certificate altered to show her as either the father or parent, not the mother. It’s all very confusing, but will be even more so for the baby when it grows up. As they say, it’s a wise man who knows his father. This one will have problems knowing who his/her mother is.

Campaigners for the rights of minorities just go too far and end up not only making life more difficult for most, but for the very people they are supposed to help, George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.