Students protest near Bury St Edmunds at Thurston Community College following TikTok trend
A principal has written to parents to address concerns over students' access to toilets following a protest.
Some pupils at Thurston Community College in Thurston, near Bury St Edmunds, staged a demonstration there on Friday, February 24.
Nationally, there has been a wave of protests at schools, which are believed to have been fuelled by TikTok and social media as students speak out over rules.
SuffolkNews understands access to toilets was a particular grievance for the Thurston students protesting, with one parent saying their child had stopped drinking anything before lunch to make it through the morning.
In an email to parents and carers yesterday, college principal Nicki Mattin said there had been no change to how it had always been regarding toilet use.
She said they strongly encourage students to go at break and lunchtime and if a student needs to go during the lesson they must ask permission.
She said toilets were only locked when they were awaiting repair and added: "There are always toilets available to students."
She said the school had experienced, like many schools, a minority of students arranging to meet up in the toilets during lessons, meeting up and vaping in toilets and there had been vandalism across all of their toilet blocks.
In the email she said: "Today has been about working together to start to solve the issues that our community feels strongly about.
"Our school council meets this week and has their agenda items provided by the tutor groups. We have also opened our Careers Hub at lunchtime this week to act as a drop-in centre for any student or groups of students who want to come along with some thoughts, issues or ideas."
With other protest days being planned in coming weeks according to TikTok, she asked parents/carers to continue to encourage their children to use social media constructively and to distance themselves from antisocial behaviour.
She added: "The majority of our students on Friday were clear they wanted no part of the ‘protest’ and felt upset that others would act in this way."
In an earlier email the principal had raised concerns over the behaviour displayed by some of her students on Friday and said: "Those students who were responsible or who have made comments, encouraged others to participate or who have posted videos, will be sanctioned."
She said it appeared the 'protest' was organised by a small number of students using Snapchat, including those no longer attending the school.
The parent, who didn't wish to be named, said while the students were surely aware of the TikTok protests, and could maybe have done things differently, this was 'very much about what mattered to them'.
