Story by:
Professor Jenna Gillett-Swan
In the participating vertical schools, school toilets and bathrooms were designed to be inclusive and support diverse student identities and needs (e.g. Unisex, All gender, Gender neutral etc).
While the placement and configurations of the bathroom amenities differed across the sites (e.g. self contained stalls, common wash area), the student perspectives of their experiences were fairly consistent.
They are spaces for privacy, refuge, self-care and social interaction
Toilets are spaces to...
Take a breath
Play/muck around
Hang with friends
Breathe for a second
Be away from others
Not be judged
Escape
But toilets also require strategy to effectively navigate...
Time
Safety
Senses
Territories
Crowdedness
Privacy
Predictability
Vulnerability
Personal Matters
“Sometimes girls like film tiktoks in there, like I see my friend's tiktok pages“
Students value access to a private space.
“When people try to find a private space, it's usually an enclosed space to feel comfortable in expressing yourself and your emotions.”
Students want to be able to get away.
“I think most people go into the bathroom to get away like some people might be a few minutes late, so they don't have that, like 10 like walking into class with everyone or they do they just kind of like,I guess you could say, Hang out there for a few minutes until that time passes… just waiting for it to get closer to the class time so they don't have to wait around those areas [near the classroom]."
Students value predictability.
“You have to bring a friend with you every time you go to the bathroom. Check if it's locked, but the teachers won't let you, obviously. So you have to make an excuse when they go to the bathroom and they check if it's locked. And if it's not locked and they stand at the door.”
Some students avoid using the toilets at school for the purpose in which they are functionally designed. If they do need to use them for this purpose, there is a lot of thinking and strategy that needs to be employed to safely navigate without risk.
“Our bathrooms are unisex, so they're really inclusive - we love that! But not everyone feels comfortable going to a bathroom where someone of a different sex has been or could come in at any moment. When students have their period it can be very scary and nerve-wracking. Students don't want to be embarrassed being 'caught' managing natural things. Toilets can still be inclusive when you have a female, male, and a unisex toilet, can't they?”
In a vertical school, people are in close proximity to one another, so finding a private space to take care of yourself without it being 'obvious', whether that is fixing yourself up or expressing emotion, makes it more comfortable.
Students find toilets to be a private space where they can take care of themselves. They find it it nice to have their own mirror in the stall to be able to compose themselves and fix themselves up (neaten hair etc), take a breath, reset, be away from others, not be judged, and not have anyone looking at them. They find the toilets to be a place to cry, to calm down, and to find refuge in an otherwise busy day.
“When people try to find a private space, it's usually an enclosed space to feel comfortable in expressing yourself and your emotions... if you need to cry, you're not gonna wanna do that in public for everyone to see, cos that's embarrassing. And the bathroom, if I went in and I heard someone, you know, crying, and I just think to myself, Oh, that person's not having a very good day. I wouldn't judge them. Which, I mean, gives you a bit of hope if you were doing that no, someone wouldn't be judging you. So it's just a comfortable place to express yourself.”
“Go there to deal with the feelings like guilt”
The intensification and continual visibility of being in a vertical school can make it challenging for students to be able to find a safe and quiet space to themselves. Bathrooms / toilets are one of the few spaces that have a lockable door so that they can take a breath, display emotion, reset, not be judged and be away from others.
There are challenges when it comes to using the toilets to find solace.
They could hear them outside the door, they called it 'knock knock' or 'the lock game'. But it wasn't just knocking. They'd try to get in. To unlock the door lock when someone was inside. Like a challenge. Keys, student card, belt buckle, it wasn't difficult to unlock the door from the outside. We don't go to the toilet any more.
That's the other grade's bathroom. They've claimed it. Someone went in there once, and walked in on students vaping. They did their business as quickly as they could, feeling intimidated by the students congregating at the entrance to the stall. When they left the bathroom area, they ran into a teacher who issued a sanction.
"You've been vaping. I can smell it."
They didn't even have a chance to explain it wasn't them.
Toilets were mostly tagged as not thriving spaces requiring effortful manageability.
Why?
Are there other spaces students can access that serve similar functions as the toilets currently are (e.g. privacy, refuge, social) so that the toilets can be used for their intended function?
She needed to fix her Hijab, but there were male students loitering around the washbasin. The school had given permission for her to use the disabled bathroom, but she is proud of her religion, why should it be seen as a disability?
Toilets are an important space for student wellbeing and thriving. While students would tend to prefer to use alternative spaces for most of the non-functional uses of the toilet facilities such as seeking privacy to manage emotions or spaces to meet with friends, as a space, toilets provide multiple opportunities to help students do what they need to do. That is, toilet spaces help make student navigation of their daily school experiences more manageable by providing somewhere that students can go to minimise external stimuli and have some sense of control over their environment, which also makes it a meaningful space. In terms of comprehensibility, toilet spaces can be a contested space as they are not always predictable in terms of functional use or sensory experience.
Thriving is enhanced when students have access to a private space to themselves when they need it that is meaningful. High visibility in most spaces within the school means that students will sometimes need to use the toilets for purposes other than their intended purpose in order to manage the competing inputs they are faced with throughout the day.
Thriving is enhanced when students know that the spaces will do what they are supposed to - they are predictable. For toilets, sometimes students don't know if they will be able to use the toilets for their intended purpose such as the door being unlocked or opened from the outside while in use.
“Toilets are a private space to let your emotions out and be yourself.”
Thriving is enhanced when risks associated with using a space are reduced - it increases student sense of psychosocial safety and comfort. For toilets, students tend to find them overcrowded and there is always a risk that someone will walk in on them when doing their business.
“The toilets are often crowded / overcrowded which makes them difficult to use and navigate.”
“Toilets are overcrowded and there is always a risk someone will walk in on you when doing your business.”
Thriving is enhanced when students have places to go to socialise and meet with their friends. The toilets offer a useful meeting space for students as they can fix their uniforms discretely, use the mirror, get a drink, and have private conversations all in the one place.
“Toilets are a social space to hang out with friends.”
“Some students play tricks on their friends in the toilet areas.”
Thriving is enhanced when students know where to go and what is expected. For toilets, clear signage is useful to support student use and comprehensibility.
The toilets have signage that indicate whether it is a gender neutral / all gender / unisex or gender specified amenity
Thriving is enhanced when they experience sensory comfort in a space. Toilet areas can present an overstimulating sensory environment with bright colours, strong smells (e.g. cleaning products), discomforting textures and temperatures (e.g. scratchy toilet paper, slippery floors, cold seats etc).
Restroom (toilet). MS Always smelly and some people just didn't clean it after using #gross
Toilet paper on walls, urine all over the place, the toilets are messy, unhygienic, and not taken care of
Thriving is enhanced when students feel their individual needs are catered for. Some students may need privacy in the toilet area for cultural or religious reasons such as washing their feet before prayer or adjusting a hijab. Having an accessible and inclusive toilet/bathroom space that supported diverse students was important for students even if they did not need to use these spaces themselves. This supports the navigability and inclusivity of high use spaces.
Students needing privacy in the toilet for cultural or religious reasons do not have an accessible and inclusive space to do so
Toilets always can be made and nicer, I guess. But, you know, it seems to be an endless issue, doesn't it? I mean, most of the toilets, we design them with areas outside for supervision, so we avoid providing them as kind of hidden away. But you know, there's that balance between privacy and having a teacher there, but it's always a conflict, and there's no real simple solution.
How might the toilet experience be made more predictable?
How might student access to toilets and bathrooms be better facilitated for their intended function?
How can surveillance as safety and need for privacy be more effectively navigated?
How might toilets and bathrooms be designed inclusively such as culture, gender, or disability without marginalising or making students feel unsafe or apprehensive to use them?
How does the location and proximity of the different bathroom types influence their use/misuse?
What is the relationship between toilets and school culture?
How might pride and connection to the toilet space be facilitated?
Do alternative areas need to be created?
What other spaces are available or could be designed that fulfill some of the main needs students use toilets and bathrooms for (such as self-regulation, privacy, social reset)?
How might provision of alternative spaces for these functions support student access and use to toilets for the primary function for which they are designed?
How does the location of common congregation areas influence the use of the toilet/bathroom area for reasons other than its functional purpose?
Do handbasins and mirrors in the cubicles help or hinder?
Can loss of retreat be designed out?
What should happen in toilets and what should happen elsewhere?
How are the purposes the toilets are used for influenced by where they are located?
The crutches were difficult to navigate already, but the playing in the bathrooms - throwing water at each other, spraying the showerhead when someone tried to enter - meant all the floors were slippery and hazardous. It's not worth the risk to fall over. It's only 6 hours until home time.
We asked the students to give us their stories. They responded with images, post-it notes, videos, and mini documentaries. We've collected all of these and created more stories that highlight their everyday experiences as students in UV schools.
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