Victorian schools hire door monitors to police school toilets

Schools are taking extreme measures to stop students from vaping in and using toilets as a “TikTok film studio”, with one hiring a door monitor to record who enters and exits.

Some Victorian schools have hired door monitors to try to prevent students from vaping in the toilets.

Victorian schools are resorting to extreme measures to stop students from vaping and vandalising toilets, with some principals hiring a door monitor to record students entering and exiting bathrooms.

An online forum containing a discussion between Victorian teachers reveals the strict policies state and private school principals are using to stop students from vaping in toilets and to curb vandalism such as graffiti.

Some of the drastic moves mentioned by teachers on the forum include a door monitor being hired at one school to sit in front of the toilets all day and electronically record students’ entries and exits.

One school has even installed cameras at the entrance of the toilets.

“We locked them and the ones that are open have teachers or cameras at the entrance,” one teacher wrote.

“Students have to use the front office disabled toilet during class time and their name is taken down,” the teacher wrote.

A teacher also commented saying the toilets were bizarrely being used as a “TikTok film studio”.

“Have to lock them during class time. Trying to eat their lunch in there (toilets) organising fights or vaping/marijuana,” he said.

Teachers also said their schools had implemented an email system for during class, where an email is sent noting what child has gone to the toilet in class and passes for students to use the bathroom.

Schools are taking extreme measures to stop students from vaping in toilets and vandalising school property.

It comes as students from Koo Wee Rup Secondary College were locked out of bathrooms over vaping concerns in October last year.

Parents were sent a letter from the school at the time saying school wide toilets had been locked, with students asked to “request an access card to use the toilet”.

Students at Parkdale Secondary College were also locked out of the school’s toilets during class hours in December after complaints of vaping and other anti-social behaviour.

During classroom hours, students were only allowed to use bathrooms in a designated building with a pass.

Earlier this year, videos of students at UK school Eastbourne Academy went viral on TikTok after the school’s strict toilet policies, which gave pupils limited access.

Melbourne clinical psychologist Simon Kinsella said the extreme policies were not addressing the root cause of the problem.
“It would definitely be distressing for people who had any health problems or needed privacy, there would be a range of different issues that would arise,” he said.

Child Psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said there needed to be a concerted public health campaign about the dangers of vaping that targets young people.

“Helping kids get off vapes is the key, using public health ads and once they’re addicted we should be helping them stop,” he said.

A state government spokesman said smoking and vaping was banned in all educational facilities in Victoria, including schools, and banned within four metres of any school entrance.

“The Department works in partnership with organisations such as Quit and Cancer Council Victoria to share guidance and resources and support schools to discuss the risks associated with use of e-cigarettes with young people,” he said.

“We regularly review and update these resources to ensure they include the latest health information.”

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