Roger Cook shuts down public schools following Mandurah Catholic College’s toilet camera system

A Mandurah school’s decision to install doorbell-style cameras outside toilets blocks will not be rolled out in the public system accroding to Premier Roger Cook. Mandurah Catholic College has implemented a system where students who go to the toilet during class time must push a button outside the block and look into a camera so reception staff can check that they have a teacher’s permission. One parent in the school said it was “almost like an invasion of privacy for them” for her two daughters who attend the school. Asked about the move on Monday, the Premier said he understood the system was done with safety in mind, but thought it was not needed. “We won’t be implementing that sort of program in WA public schools, it’s not necessary,” he said. “We think that there’s other measures you can put in place to ensure that you don’t have any anti-social behaviour in school toilets. “I understand and appreciate the effort by the school to make sure that they keep kids safe and that they ensure that they can keep their whole school community safe, but we won’t be implementing that sort of program in public schools.” 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 antisocial 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 antisocial behaviour.”