Parents whose children attend Gaelcholáiste Chiarraí in Tralee have told Gript that a formal consultation with pupils at the school about gender neutral toilets did not take place – in contrast to the impression given during the debate over the school’s rebuild.
It had been claimed that pupils had expressed opinions – strong opinions – in favour of gender-neutral toilets, but parents say that no actual consultation took place.
That is just absolute nonsense,” one mother said, adding that the school management needed to be “held to account” over the controversy.
“Parents and students were not consulted. I can tell you they weren’t,” she told Gript.
They say that taking the opinion of a small number of students, however outspoken they were, is not the same thing as holding a formal consultation, and that it was important that an incorrect impression of the situation be corrected.
Parents claim, to their knowledge, that there was no consultation to gain feedback from students – and that parents were also left in the dark.
The debacle sparked a national media storm last week after it emerged that parents were not asked or told about the new toilets at the €16 million new school being gender neutral.
Following parental uproar over the move, the school reversed the proposed plan to have three floors of gender neutral toilets in a move that was hailed as a clear victory for parental rights.
Dee Stewart, who has two daughters attending the Irish medium secondary school, told us last week that the school ignored parents’ requests for information up until local media covered the story and contacted the school for comment.
It is claimed that the patrons of the School, Kerry ETB Board of Management, who are sole members of the design team, made the decision regarding the design and designation of the facilities in the new school without first consulting parents or students.
“It is very disappointing that for at least 18 months, they knew these toilets were going to be gender neutral and they didn’t communicate that or consult with us. We found out two weeks before the school was opening – this shouldn’t be happening,” Ms Stewart told Gript.
She insisted that neither parents nor their children who attend the school had any say in the design of the toilets in the school which is set to accommodate 600 pupils.
However, speaking on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta at the end of last week, Gaelcholáiste Chiarraí principal Mr Ruairí Ó Cinnéide claimed that the gender neutral toilets were supported by students who expressed a strong desire to see the facilities.
This claim was questioned by parents Gript spoke to who said that students had not been consulted by the school about the toilets being a shared space.
Speaking on national radio last Wednesday (29 March), Mr Ó Cinnéide claimed that pupils had expressed “strong opinions” in favour of gender neutral toilets.
In response to the interview, Gript contacted the school for comment last week, and again this week, asking if a consultation with students had taken place, and if so what form it had taken and how many pupils had been asked.
The school said this week during a brief phonecall that the principal had been sent our requests for comment – however, Gript have not heard anything back with regards to his claims as of the time of publication of this article.
Commenting on the claims that students wanted gender neutral toilets, Ms Stewart said that the salient point was that pupils were not consulted about the change at all
“The truth is that the school failed to formally consult parents and students in the process from beginning to end,” she said.
Asked whether the principal consulted students, after talking to her child, she said:
“He did not. There absolutely was no consultation. I’ve never heard of any consultation, and that was the whole issue. There was no consultation with the wider school community […] I would like to hear him explain this”.
“That is just absolute nonsense,” she added, insisting that the school management needed to be “held to account” over the claims.
Dee, who is a member of the Kerry Parents Rights Alliance, and was the first to confront the school about the plans when she learned about them at the end of last month, said her children insist they were not asked about the plans – contrary to the suggestion made on national radio that they were.
She told Gript she is waiting to see what form the new toilets take when the school opens on the 24 April, and that there could be further developments.
Meanwhile, another parent who spoke to Gript said that her son, who attends the school, only heard about the gender neutral toilets at the new school through “rumours” among peers.
“As parents we were not consulted and my son only heard about this through rumours going around his classmates,” Becky McCarthy said. “These decisions should not be made without consultation and transparency”.
She added that: “The parent council meetings have been cancelled for the last 2 months and no emails were sent regarding this matter. I would hope going forward the school will be more open about the decisions made in relation to the safeguarding of children.
“I believe the toilet situation has now been resolved and I can’t really say much more on the issue – we will see how things go when the kids move over in a couple of weeks”.
The mother insists that this is “not a trans issue” but “a children’s rights/protection issue”.
Meanwhile, it is understood that the Department of Education guidelines caused confusion among those at the helm of the decision making, and that the term ‘gender neutral’ is divisive and has not been fully understood.
“According to the guidelines, there really is no such thing as gender neutral toilets – we are talking about universal access toilets, which are the disabled toilets to be accessed by boys and girls,” Ms Stewart said.
It is also claimed that the use of the terminology ‘gender neutral’ is divisive – and that what the term means is not being fully understood.
“That terminology is very hot-button and very politicised. We had the principal apologise because he admitted he didn’t fully know what the term meant.
“On a radio interview yesterday morning, we heard the terms ‘gender neutral’ and ‘unisex’ used interchangeably but they should really look up what these two terms mean because they actually mean different things,” Ms Stewart said.
“A gender neutral toilet is a separate self-contained toilet and hand-basin area. What they are doing, however, with these gender neutral toilets is new.
“This has not been done here before and I know this because the principal himself said it. As parents, we have the right to ask for answers to our concerns with regard to safeguarding and health and safety.”
Ms Stewart has emphasised that the directive for gender neutral toilets came directly from Kerry Education and Training Board (ETB), and that Kerry ETB and the school principal were the sole members of the design. However, she criticised school management for “going ahead” with the demands without scrutiny. The new school is set to open after the Easter break on 24 April.