No soap in the school toilets

Does anyone know that there is no soap in the toilets of my primary school? The school office says that all germs will wash off with just water...we all know that is not true.

Does your school have soap, a simple way of controlling viruses, ecoli, stomach bugs ?

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Permalink Reply by Simona Coppin on July 22, 2011 at 23:10

Hi Claudia, in the school that our son attends, it is very dirty. We give him small travel size bottle of hand sanitiser. This he keeps in his pocket during the day or in his pencil case if in the event he needs it. You can't rely on the school to provide soap. They should have a soap dispenser that will hold enough liquid to last a couple of days, then topped up. If not, they could be going against OH&S. This should be brought the attention of the Principle of the school.

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Permalink Reply by soapstream on April 24, 2012 at 12:04

We are looking champions who care about children’s hand hygiene to support this cause

Please have a look at this link

http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/5751/description/0/0

If you believe in what we are trying to do then your help would be greatly appreciated.

Please forward this on to as many others as possible.

Thank you

Jane Cox

CEO

Soapstream Pty Ltd

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Permalink Reply by Maddi Polzin on July 29, 2011 at 22:32

That's disgusting. The toilets at my old school were foul and dingy because they were quite old. They occasionally had soap in them…
I trained myself to not need to go during school to avoid the germs.
They were the kind where you pull a lever and once it pinched the webbing or whatever you call it between my index finger and thumb and there was no soap to clean the scratch so I got an infection.
The problem here, however, was people using the soap and paper towels to make paper bombs to throw all over the toilets so I suppose that's different.
I would advise talking to your local equivalent of ServiceTas, or perhaps the local OH&S person, if the school is refusing to provide soap.

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Permalink Reply by soapstream on October 16, 2011 at 18:09

Hi Claudia,

The main issue surrounding the provission of soap in school toilets is generally vandalism or just mischief.

This issue is not just here in Australia but all over the world. There is going to be an answer soon as a new vandal resistant system is about to be launched in Australia. This is supported by the P&C at a national level and the Primary School Principals Assoc.

See Soapstream.com.au

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Permalink Reply by Concerned Mother on February 10, 2012 at 10:30

Hepatitis A(hep A) is usually spread from person to person by putting something in the mouth that has been contaminated with the stool of a person infected with hepatitis A (even though it may look clean). The virus is shed in the feces of infected people, and this type of transmission is known as fecal-oral transmission.

How can they say that germs are washed off with just water! b

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Permalink Reply by soapstream on February 10, 2012 at 13:56

Hi Concerned Mother,

There is a big issue surrounding the use of soap and water in schools which is what is required to remove faeses from the kids hands. What doesn’t do it is the antibacterial gels that are used in the classroom as a substitute for not having soap in the school toilets.

Until parents start demanding that there is a change towards the current best practice guidelines put out by the education department which just leave it up to school Principal to solve the problem then the issues like you have brought up will continue to go unresolved.

Our school toilets are the only place in our society that are not controlled/audited by the health department. Every other public toilet in Australia is inspected by an Environmental Health Officer from your local council. The school Principal is not an Environmental Health Officer. It seems our kids are treated like second class citizens when it comes to protecting them by having healthy toilets.

All concerned Mums should start writing to your local papers and to your local member. They are starting to do this in England as well. Go to http://www.bog-standard.org/

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Permalink Reply by Sheryl Curran on April 29, 2012 at 17:30

my son's primary school doesnt have soap either which i find appalling. I work in the health industry and the importance of handwashing has always been a top priority. My son's school apparently said its too messy

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Permalink Reply by soapstream on April 29, 2012 at 18:07

Hi Sheryl,

The condition of the toilets is a large contributor to the children not using the toilets. There are few studies coming out now showing that children who hold back from going to the toilet at school run the risk of bowel problems later in life.

A large part of fixing the school toilet situation is having the children have a general change of attitude towards the toilets. See the interview on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79yHaFLpFZo and it will explain the need a sustainable hand hygiene education program and the introduction of Grimestoppers.

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Permalink Reply by Sonja on May 18, 2012 at 9:23

The primary school my sons go to also never has soap in the bathrooms. I just started putting small bottles of dettol hand sanitiser in their bags for them to use. Its crazy that schools dont have that. Whoever told you that from the school office is an idiot. Even my 3 yr old knows that water doesnt wash off germs!