A school in Blaenau Gwent has introduced toilet chaperones for secondary-age pupils, and a campaigner warns the policy could discourage students from seeking help for periods and other health issues. Because nothing says "accessible education" quite like a pastoral team member standing sentry at the loo.

Molly Fenton, founder of the Love Your Period campaign, said she would have been unlikely to use school toilets if she had needed to be accompanied as a pupil, and said it put students "at risk." The 24-year-old from Cardiff added she was "quite shocked that was even thought of."

Ebbw Fawr Learning Community introduced the chaperones in response to costly vandalism and excessive time spent out of lessons. Parents were initially told that all secondary-age pupils asking to use the toilet during a lesson would be escorted by a member of the pastoral team to the entrance of the toilet block. The school then said, after meeting with 50 "pupil representatives," that the policy would only apply to pupils on stage three of the school's behaviour policy or persistent late attenders.

"I think that this is a very broad, problematic thing... putting many people at risk," Fenton said. She explained that when she was in school, she had "really, really harrowing periods" and was often in the school toilets, "blood all over me, thinking, 'I don't actually know what to do in this moment and I'm stuck and I don't know who to go to, where to go. Can I go back to class like this?'"

She warned the policy could bring stigmas about using the toilet in school to "a whole new level." "We know there's already an issue with young people not going for the toilet in school," she said. "They're embarrassed. They're holding in their poo when they should be going."

Fenton said she would not have trusted a chaperone enough to confide in them, a problem exacerbated by the pandemic, and that "young people are even less likely to trust authority." She added that "culture change" was needed to make toilets "shame and stigma free."

The Welsh government said councils set a school's toilet policies, adding they must be "accessible to all learners throughout the school day, taking into account pupils' basic needs." Ebbw Fawr Learning Community said: "To address costly vandalism and prolonged periods of absence from the classroom, the school wrote to parents several weeks ago to introduce [the] new toilets arrangement for secondary aged pupils. Sadly the vandalism to toilets by a small minority of pupils has resulted in thousands of pounds worth of damages over recent months. To address this the new arrangements involved learners being escorted to the toilet during the lessons either side of the lunch break, when incidents were most prevalent."

Meanwhile, in other news that makes you question the state of things: a farmer says hosting a 4G mast is a "nightmare" as fees cost him thousands, a hero dinner lady died saving five children in the Aberfan disaster, and Marvel fans are set to meet a Welsh superhero - complete with Cardiff accent. Priorities, apparently.