There are reports that some Queensland schools are remodelling their toilet blocks and putting them under strict security in a bid to reduce inappropriate sexual behaviour between students.
An article published in The Courier-Mail highlighted that with people under 19 now responsible for more than 40 per cent of all sex crimes schools were rethinking their designs to keep kids safe.
“I’ve had at least three principals tell me they are redesigning their toilets to keep kids safe at school, and another school put a security guard on the toilet block,” Melinda Tankard Reist, co-founder of advocacy group Collective Shout, told The Courier-Mail.
In the same report Bravehearts criminologist Carol Ronken sighted an incident where a child at a day care centre was abusing his peers by cornering them in play areas and the toilets.
“With at least three victims, the young boy tried to digitally penetrate them,” Ronken said. “He would threaten them to ensure they would not tell.”
Ms Ronken explained that often children’s toilets are spaces with covered windows and blocked from easy monitoring which put kids in “vulnerable situations”.
The considered changes follow several high profile reports of children being attacked by other kids in toilets.
One north Queensland father whose son was allegedly raped by another boy at school came forward earlier this year to tell of how the attacks have traumatised his boy.
“The kid has tried to kill himself twice in the last 14 days,” the Rockhampton father said in September. “We’re at a loss as to what else we can do. He was followed into the toilet, made to pull his pants down and raped.”
At the time the family said they had sought council from Slater and Gordon Lawyers to pursue a public liability claim against the state because the incident happened while the boys were at school.
