HS in Tampere | Unisex toilets are safe, but there is one thing that annoys me – This is how the students themselves think about the sloppy toilets

People from Tampere middle school students do not consider unisex toilets any more unsafe than separate solutions.

Unisex toilets, i.e. toilets shared by different genders, are becoming more common in Finnish schools. That is why they have also sparked discussion among middle school students and parents.

Unisex toilets insecurity the research professor of the Swedish Population Association has spoken recently, among others Anna Rotkirch.

In Tampere, unisex toilets are used, for example, at Tesoma unified school, which is one of Finland's largest unified schools covering elementary and middle school. There are a total of more than 1,500 students in four school buildings.

HS visited Tesoma to meet the school's students and ask how they feel about the unisex toilets.

To Tampere a plan has been drawn up in the city's basic education, which includes equality and equality in the learning environment, says the principal of the Tesoma school Päivi Ikola. The plan will also be supplemented on a school-by-school basis with regard to toilets.

Almost all of the seven 13–15-year-olds met by HS also have experience with separate toilets during their elementary school years. No one has experienced unisex toilets as strange or unsafe.

A seventh grader Juuse Kinnunen13, says that he spent his entire school years in unisex toilets.

“In Ylöjärvi elementary school, the toilets for girls and boys were not separated. That's why it didn't seem strange at all that here in the middle school we also go to shared bathrooms. Pretty normal. Yes, shared toilets should be completely safe.”

A ninth grader Sofia Marjamäki15, considers unisex toilets a good thing because they increase the equality of students.

“If you don't feel like a girl or a boy, it's more natural to deal with them.”

Students say that sometimes “humorous situations” happen in shared toilets.

An eighth grader Riikonen's gift14, according to a phenomenon that often occurs in school toilets: Boys tend to frown and bang on the toilet door if they think their friends are inside.

“They shout 'start coming already' or 'are you there' and bang on that door. Then when I answer something, they freak out that there's a girl there!”

The only scary thing about the unisex toilet is that sometimes you forget to lock the door, says the ninth grader Vilja Toriseva15.

“When someone pulls the door open without warning, it freaks out a lot.”

All The seven Tesoma school students interviewed by HS consider shared toilets safe in principle.

“I don't even understand what could be unsafe about them,” says Vilja Toriseva.

None of the interviewees has ever experienced anything unsafe in the toilets of their own school. An eighth grader Kerttu Karhumaa14, admits that at first he was “a little prejudiced” towards unisex toilets.

“At Lamminpää elementary school, I got used to the fact that there were separate toilets for girls and boys.”

However, Karhumaa says that during middle school the prejudices have faded.

“Safety is not a problem, but I have never seen such messy toilets before. Maybe boys mess up more.”

The same others also agree: according to their experience, the hygiene is worse than in the schools where they have used separate toilets.

“Not everyone goes to the bathroom just to use the bathroom, but also to make a mess,” says the eighth grader Lenni Joutsala14.

“Some people also go to the school toilets to vent their bad feelings,” Juuse Kinnunen thinks.

Kerttu Karhumaa believes that if the different genders had separate toilets, the girls' toilets would remain cleaner.

“But it could be both–and. Why couldn't there be separate toilets for girls and boys, as well as unisex toilets.”