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E-mail StoryShould preschools have stalls in their bathrooms?
| Monday, Dec 11 2006 10:35 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Dec 11 2006 10:39 PM
Parent Evelyn Mendez was shocked to learn last week that the bathroom stalls at her 4-year-old daughter's preschool had been permanently removed.
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That means her daughter, along with the other students, now goes to the bathroom in open rooms, sometimes with other boys and girls.
"My daughter is very sensitive about it," Mendez said. "Kids at that age have very fragile minds."
Mendez has pulled her daughter out of school until the situation is fixed. But that's not likely to happen because this is the way preschool bathrooms have been for years, educators say. The state requires licensed preschools to monitor children at all times, including when they're in the bathroom, and that can mean boys and girls in one room with no stalls.
The stalls at the preschool, the Claude W. Richardson Child Development Center for children ages 2 to 5, were taken down recently to better comply with those regulations, said Linda Hudson, director of child development services for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. Even before the stalls were taken down, they didn't have doors, she said.
"It's for their safety," Hudson said. "The children don't make a big thing about it. To children, it's a non-issue."
The question: Should preschoolers have privacy in the bathroom?
Yes to privacy
Mendez definitely thinks so. She said she wasn't even aware of the situation until a recent conversation with her daughter.
The two were at a restaurant when Mendez's daughter told her mom it was all right to use the men's restroom. Mendez had to correct her. Then she realized why her daughter made the comment.
She said she's seen a change in her daughter's habits since she started school in September.
"Now I notice she doesn't even close the bathroom door anymore," Mendez said. "They grow up thinking that's OK."
Each of the school's child development bathrooms consists of several toilets, urinals and sinks in an open room. The doors to the rooms are left open while children are in them. Some of the classrooms also have single-toilet bathrooms, but the doors to those must also be left open when children use them.
Several other parents interviewed outside the school Monday said they weren't aware their children were using toilets in open rooms with members of the opposite sex.
"They have no privacy," Mendez said. "Just because they're kids, we shouldn't take that away from them."
Yes to safety
The other parents interviewed, however, said they have no problem with the current setup.
"I think it's OK just as long as someone is supervising," said parent Ysenia Duenas, who said she works at a different preschool with a similar bathroom situation.
Grandmother Olga Perez, who picked up her grandchildren Monday, laughed off the issue.
"It doesn't matter," Perez said. "They're little. I don't think they're going to be looking at each other."
Hudson said small children aren't typically self-conscious about the bathroom or being partially unclothed. She said the bathrooms are open at all 16 of the office's preschools.
The Richardson center, she said, was the last one to have stalls of any kind, even though they had no doors.
"It was not the norm," Hudson said. "It was what those parents were familiar with."
The bathrooms are open because the state Department of Social Services requires constant supervision of preschool-age children at all licensed preschools, public and private. In fact, one of the county superintendent of schools' preschools was cited earlier this year for not having a staff member watching a child while the child went to the bathroom, Hudson said.
The state does not require preschool-age children have privacy, said Shirley Washington, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Social Services.
Richardson Principal Brian Cortez said staff generally try to bring students to the bathroom in separate groups of boys and girls, but that's not always possible.
"Kids don't really have that recognition of gender differences so it's not really an issue for kids," Cortez said.
Hudson said child development center staff are trained to recognize when a child might feel uncomfortable, and at that point, might let the child take a bathroom break apart from other children.
"It's whatever the children are comfortable with," Hudson said. "At no time do we ever make children go when they're uncomfortable."