Mandurah Catholic College tracks students’ toilet visits during lessons via doorbell cameras

A private high school in Mandurah is using doorbell-style cameras to track students visiting toilet blocks during lessons in a bid to stamp out anti-social behaviour. Students at Mandurah Catholic College who go to the toilet during class time must push a button and look into a camera for reception staff to check they have been given permission by a teacher before they can go inside the bathroom. A mother with two children attending the school said the doorbell cameras were part of a schoolwide crackdown on unsupervised students using toilets outside of break times. “It’s almost like an invasion of privacy for them,” she said. “Because if they’re needing to go to the toilet, they need to go. “They shouldn’t need to face a camera to get permission to go to the toilet.” The parent, who did not wish to be named, said she was also concerned about who might have access to the footage. “They’re basically recording our kids going to the toilet,” she said. The parent said she did not recall being notified the cameras would be installed outside school toilets or asked for her consent. The West understands the college communicated the change to parents in Term 4 last year. A spokesperson for Catholic Education WA said Mandurah Catholic College had put a number of policies in place to help reduce the level of anti-social behaviour in the school’s toilet blocks. This included limiting “unnecessarily large groups” entering a toilet block. “In Term 4 of 2025 a security measure to monitor anti-social behaviour was implemented, however this measure does not involve cameras facing the toilets or storage of footage,” the spokesperson said. “The use of this system has led to a drastic reduction in anti-social behaviour.” Many schools discourage students from using toilets outside break times — even keeping some locked — to cut down on students vaping or vandalising facilities. But using doorbell cameras and intercoms to monitor toilet access has not been common practice in WA schools. Wellbeing expert Catherine Smith said while expanding surveillance in schools could be framed as improving safety, it could also affect students’ dignity, privacy and trust. Dr Smith, a senior lecturer in wellbeing science in the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Education, said when surveillance was used in place of more relational, supportive and educative responses, it could erode trust between students and staff. “Bathrooms are not trivial or neutral spaces in school life,” she said. “They are tied to bodily privacy, menstruation, disability access and dignity. “For some students, they are also spaces of fear or vulnerability, including around gender and safety. “Some young people feel safer going during class when the space is quieter and more manageable.”