School Toilets? Third World Standard!
Having received the letter from the sitting member, I must say that I am not assured that he has grasped the importance of this issue (lack of soap and adequate drying facilities in school toilets), I realise that as a sitting member he does have contact with schools, I guess that he may of asked various Principals if their toilets adequately cater for the students needs in this area, but I assure him that they do not, if he was to inspect them himself (without warning) he will be appalled by the lack of soap and facilities provided to the children. Thornlie Primary School is currently trying to sell some hand dryers that were purchased several years ago but were never installed, the parents at that school saw the need and stepped up and purchased this equipment, but of course the dryers could not be installed due to a poor power supply (even though they spent 50K on optical fibre for their Intranet), my eleven year old that attends this primary school will not use these toilets, my older daughter who attends Thornlie High School assures me that there is never any soap (prob rarely) and that she has to hunt for toilet paper. Both of my daughters attending school at the moment tell me that their teachers are constantly telling them to wash their hands regularly, but I must ask how can they whilst at school (the usual standard reply is "they should bring their own"). If you were to ask the principal or staff they will prob reply that of course there is soap, and they will handball the problem to the cleaners, and if you question the cleaners they will tell you that they do supply some, but that the kids waste it, I know that there is no specific budget to cater for this expense (time spent on P&C and School Council) so I must ask you "are schools provided with a specific budget item that caters for these supplies and if so why is it not used? I again ask you to please take the time to inspect these facilities for yourself, why provide public toilets if they can not be used for the specific task they are designed for?"
Peter Evans
Thornlie
