Scotland Goes Toilet Crazy
American anti-vape hysteria has seen a number of bizarre school toilet closures around the world - a Scottish school is the latest to lose all sense in a so-called crackdown on vaping
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by Dave Cross
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It hasn’t been a great 2022 for Cathkin High so far. In January, police had to speak with the leadership team following a spate violence. Videos appeared online showing girls from the school fighting in the street and “stomping” a lone, young girl. The violence was so widespread and on such a level that a local police spokesperson said, “police officers and teachers … were not sufficient … to tackle the problem.”
A parent told the local paper: "I'm scared sending my son to school at the moment. He's been well-warned to walk away if a fight breaks out, but a lot of the kids just don't care. There's no respect for staff or police so they carry on. It's the same most days. There's a lot of fighting going on and it seems to be different schemes that are fighting."
This week, school leaders have been accused of being “heavy handed” and “overreacting” after they closed access to most of the girls’ toilets following an American style “crackdown” on electronic cigarette use. The toilets were closed during lessons and girls were only allowed access during breaks and lunchtime.
Another angry parent told journalists: “It’s been extremely heavy handed and feels like all the pupils are being punished for a small group of girls who are vaping regularly. It can be embarrassing for girls having their periods and trying to change their tampons to have to try and find the accessible toilet rather than just using the communal ones.
“It is also a risk for pupils with medical conditions, such as having an overactive bladder – it is making something which should be straightforward into a harder task. It can be particularly bad when classes come out at the end of the day, as you have so many pupils around at the same time, and they say they can’t open the communal facilities up then either. It is ridiculous that children are being limited to accessing a toilet, as it is surely a basic human right and being unable to access the toilets is not good for their physical health.”
The council education department attempted to explain that there was still a toilet provision, but no comment has been made by the school leadership team. The school’s social media limited comments to its catchphrase of “Community, Excellence, ambition, Respect” and congratulations to former pupil Cole McKinnon for scoring for Glasgow Rangers on his debut.
There isn’t a current inspection report available, but there probably will be soon following this bad press.
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Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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