Restrooms become risk rooms

A considerable portion of reported and unreported misconduct perpetrated at the school level is related to the restroom area. Some issues, however, go beyond physical hygiene. They tread into the domain of moral hygiene – a grey area students often avoid reporting out of shame, embarrassment or fear of bullying.

The students waiting outside the washrooms knock and kick the door violently, either to tease the occupant out of fun or force him to rush his ease. In doing so, they also cause damage to doors and their fastenings, creating cracks and crevices to be used by Peeping Toms. The bolts and latches are unhinged mala fide. The doors without fastenings are easily pushed by strong and sturdy students to embarrass the weak ones. Such an infrastructure also nurtures voyeurism among students.

In roofless washrooms, the throwing of water and loo pots over the walls is common mischief among students. The walls can be easily climbed over to assault other students, and the perpetrator remains at large to continue such sordid activities. At campuses where laxity allows digital devices like mobile phones and digital watches to sneak into school premises, the private moments are filmed to blackmail the weak and meek students.

Schools have to micromanage the "friendships" between students of early and higher classes. The washrooms are mostly located in a cornered area far from the classrooms and admin block. The locale facilitates shady activities among students. The discipline department and teachers have to be vigilant about the students asking for permission to use washrooms. If the timing of a junior student coincides with that of a senior student and the pattern continues for days, it means something fishy is settled between them.

At times, a senior student takes an alternate route to washrooms instead of the usual one, which itself arouses suspicion. He, while passing in front of the junior classes, leaves subtle signals for a particular junior student. Once involved, the victim remains a victim as long as he stays at school.

During the break time, the restrooms become a safe haven for sordid activities. In multi-storeyed schools, the restrooms in the upper storeys remain less tended during the study periods but least monitored during the break time. The lax monitoring and the break time frenzy create conducive circumstances for sleazy activities as all the students rush down to the ground floor, which houses open space to play games and cafeteria to offer eatables.

With minicameras concealed in washrooms, even sometimes embedded in electric bulbs, the privacy of these spaces stands menacingly compromised. But the horrible scenario is that schools are not proactive in this direction. Regular inspection of the infrastructure and electrical installations of washrooms can help spot and stop such intrusions into students' discretely private moments in extremely public spaces.

Scatological graffiti in public loos is hilarious per se, but it becomes maligning when it addresses a particular person, group or persuasion. In school lavatories, when obscenities and scatological invectives target a student, he becomes the subject of ridicule without knowing the reason. When he learns of the scandalous scribblings, his embarrassment knows no bounds. Public loos are a rare type of space, which is simultaneously public and private. Hence, the scatological vandals get away with it.

Schools should not just nourish their students with academics but also ensure their safety, privacy and dignity. Restrooms, often overlooked, demand regular upkeep. Roofless washrooms, a glaring breach of decency, find no space in modern educational infrastructure. Students visiting washrooms must be screened for mobile phones and digital watches. They should be brought home that vigilance in such matters is not intrusion; it's protection.

Every school must have a privacy council where students can report bullying and harassment. A complaint box must be installed in the school wherein students can drop their complaints without revealing their identity. Harassment and physical trespasses can be exposed and eradicated if confidentiality is provided to the victims. The ambit of hygiene should extend to civility.