Public school mum’s rant reveals ‘disgraceful’ state of stinky loos

A mum has claimed schoolchildren are developing UTIs and bladder issues because school toilets are so unsanitary students refuse to use them.

A public school mum has blasted the state government over the stinky state of the school loos, claiming children were contracting urinary tract infections because they did not want to step inside the rancid toilets which reeked of urine.

NSW P & C Federation Vice-President Yvonne Hilsz told the state government committee on school infrastructure that bathrooms overrun with spiders, grout infested with urine spray and cubicles with no locks were all driving factors.

“I can talk toilets all day,” Ms Hilsz declared before launching into a minutes-long rest room rant.

“Can I just say of toilets in our schools, it is absolutely disgraceful.

“We have children who live in housing estates who probably have better access to toilets than our children in all schools.”

(File image) Parents are complaining of school bathrooms so filthy students refuse to use them.

“We have parents complaining that their children have UTIs, bladder issues because the children refuse to got to the toilet during the day for … toilet stops.

“They’re not drinking water in the classrooms so they’re dehydrated all day, not peeing, coming home and we’re talking about behavioural issues in the classroom.”

She said local Parent and Citizens groups spent a disproportionate amount of time discussing toilet issues.

“We have doors unhinged, we have vandalised left right and centre.

“In the primary schools we have spiders … soap dispensers don’t work so they can’t wash their hands for sanitary reasons.”

“Some of them has grout that has been there for 50 or 60 years … you have plumbing issues … you have toilet seats yanked off and not replaced.”

The parent groups said when school bureaucrats organised repairs they were as much as four times the price as when parents organised a builder or plumber privately.

She said she oversaw inner west schools and said even schools in rich areas had awful unusable toilets.

At that point fellow P and C volunteer from the North Sydney area Alan Gardiner chimed in saying parents named toilets as the single biggest issue in schools.

He said to get rid of the acrid stench which had been built up over decades and decades, significant work was required.

“It means the entire toilet area has to be entirely jackhammered out and a completely new room put in, that’s to get rid of the stench.”

Ms Hilsz went on to report how school repairs organised by bureaucrats cost four times as much as it did when parents organised to pay for it themselves.

“If we go to a local builder and get all of the requirements … it is a quarter of price when it comes through from (NSW Education Department’s Asset Management team).”