Mental illness and safety

[Anonymous]

There is tons of bullying that goes on in bathrooms in schools. Boy on boy, girl on girl. We don't need trans examples to realize there is a problem.

I have thought of some solutions:

Video cameras by the sinks that are monitored (and keep stalls small enough nothing can happen inside)
Adults supervising groups of kids going, instead of kids going whenever
Requiring passes to use the bathroom so groups can't form

Let's do something.

[Anonymous]

Start with YOUR principal at YOUR school.

[Anonymous]

And what should I do

[Anonymous]

There will never be video cameras in the bathrooms, near the stalls or not.

They already don't have enough staff and you want adults to run kids to the bathroom? Unlikely. Especially not happening with high school kids.

I bet many schools do use a pass system, especially high schools, but it is not the whole answer.

Suggestion: Video cameras that focus on the bathroom entrances would at least be evidence when something does happen.

Maybe they should institute policies that require admin to accompany bullies to the bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will never be video cameras in the bathrooms, near the stalls or not.

They already don't have enough staff and you want adults to run kids to the bathroom? Unlikely. Especially not happening with high school kids.

I bet many schools do use a pass system, especially high schools, but it is not the whole answer.

Suggestion: Video cameras that focus on the bathroom entrances would at least be evidence when something does happen.

Maybe they should institute policies that require admin to accompany bullies to the bathroom.

Or known bullies can only use single room bathrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will never be video cameras in the bathrooms, near the stalls or not.

They already don't have enough staff and you want adults to run kids to the bathroom? Unlikely. Especially not happening with high school kids.

I bet many schools do use a pass system, especially high schools, but it is not the whole answer.

Suggestion: Video cameras that focus on the bathroom entrances would at least be evidence when something does happen.

Maybe they should institute policies that require admin to accompany bullies to the bathroom.

Or known bullies can only use single room bathrooms.

I believe something like that was done at my kids' elementary school with a known bully. The problem is that it takes a long time to get to that point, with many kids impacted by the bullying behavior.

I tried to ask a question about individual bathrooms in another thread and got jumped on. The reality is that safety in private spaces cannot be guaranteed. Video cameras might help if you need to go back to look at who was going into bathrooms, but the cameras cannot be monitored constantly.

At the LCPS meeting, they discussed changing locks to make individual use bathrooms accessible without keys. Still, how many of these can their be in any given school?

As a parent of a child that was bullied at school for a long period, I would say that if you can't remove bullies from the school, you certainly aren't going to be able to follow them around to monitor their actions. That's why I think it is important to have safe spaces when a student is struggling or feels unsafe. Otherwise, students who feel threatened will be constantly on alert, anxious about being unprotected in spaces like loccer rooms and bathrooms. Just knowing that safe spaces are available is beneficial for these students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is tons of bullying that goes on in bathrooms in schools. Boy on boy, girl on girl. We don't need trans examples to realize there is a problem.

I have thought of some solutions:

Video cameras by the sinks that are monitored (and keep stalls small enough nothing can happen inside)
Adults supervising groups of kids going, instead of kids going whenever
Requiring passes to use the bathroom so groups can't form

Let's do something.

Our LCPS middle school already requires passes to use the bathroom. And bathrooms already don’t have doors (but stalls do obviously.)