A FIVE-YEAR-OLD girl was left to wet herself in class after she was twice refused permission to go to the toilet, her mother said.
Kaitlyn Longden says she told staff at Parks Academy, in Courtway Road, Orchard Park, she needed to use the toilet, but was told pupils were not allowed to the bathroom after lunch.
After asking for a second time, she suffered the humiliation wetting herself in class.
Her mum Jade says the embarrassment continued after school when staff sent Kaitlyn out with a bright yellow bag containing her clothes labelled "clinical waste" with a biohazard symbol.
Since then, parents have been sent letters home stating guidance has been issued to all staff saying no child is to be refused a request to use the toilet.
But Miss Longden is still furious and said she wants to highlight what happened to her daughter so no other child has to suffer the same. She said: "When I picked her up from school I asked her what the bag was and she said she had wet herself. She said, 'I kept asking to go to the loo but they wouldn't let me'."
After dropping her children at home, Miss Longden went back to the school to find out what had happened.
She said: "They said when children ask for the toilet, they like to ask them to wait for a little bit, so I asked them why they would not let her go the second time she asked and I was told it was their policy not to allow children to go to the toilet after dinner.
"I was fuming. I asked for the policy and was told they didn't have one to hand."
She says she was later told it was an informal policy, which was not written down.
After meeting with staff at the school, as well as contacting the School Partnership Trust Academies (SPTA), of which The Parks Academy is a member, she was told teachers had been informed they were to let children go to the bathroom.
But she says a second child then had an accident and it left her with little confidence that policies had changed.
The mum-of-five, of Nashcourt, Orchard Park, has now complained to Ofsted.
She said: "I was approached by another parent who said their child had also been denied access.
"I had been assured it wouldn't happen again. I sent an email to the SPTA saying that obviously members of staff were not listening."
Parents then received a letter stating their children would not be denied access to the toilet in future.
Miss Longden said: "If they had come out and said, 'she has had an accident, she did ask us twice if she could go but we were busy', and sent her out with a normal bag and admitted some responsibility, rather than trying to get away with it, I would have been fine.
"Any teacher should know it is right to let a child go to the toilet.
"Then to send her out with a clinical waste bag was disgusting.
"In a school of that size, surely they could have found a carrier bag."
