On August 29, a QUT student posted about a bizarre sighting in an accessible toilet in N-Block at the Kelvin Grove campus leaving many bewildered, confused and upset.
Social Work student Alex David posted a photo of a graphic scene they came across to QUT Stalkerspace 2.1.
The photo shows a mannequin bleeding out in a corner of the toilet in what appears to be a recreation of a suicide attempt.
David said they were attending a lecture in the building and thought they would check out the accessible facilities in the building. This accessible toilet is the only one in N-Block and David had to travel down to level one. When they arrived at the accessible toilet, they did not see any signs, and no one was near the toilet. It was only when they were in the toilet that they saw it.
‘As soon as I open the toilets, I saw it. For a split second I thought it was a real person but then I realized what was going on,’ said David.
David then attended their lecture and went back to the accessible toilet afterwards and upon arriving there were paramedic students videotaping in the bathroom.
QUT Faculty of Health Executive Dean Distinguished Professor Patsy Yates said this was a standard paramedics exercise that was set up to reflect a real-life situation.
Level One of N Block is signed as ‘Clinical Simulation Centre’ but there is no signage to suggest the bathrooms are included in teaching spaces that runs simulations. “It was set up in the bathroom space on the same floor where the paramedics train. We are mindful of students and will work to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Professor Yates said.
The QUT Student Guild Disability Collective said the incident is a misuse of accessible bathroom facilities by the University and although they understand the necessity of these exercises, suggest this should be done after hours or somewhere with multiple accessible bathrooms.
“The decision to run this simulation in that bathroom shows a complete disregard for disabled students at QUT. People needing to use a bathroom should not be at risk of seeing a bloodied mannequin,” said QUT Guild Disability Collective Convenor Michael Pendergast.
QUT said that moving forward the paramedics faculty will no longer use this toilet for simulations and will use other rooms. These other rooms will be signposted ahead of the simulation notifying students of the dates that the room will be unavailable for use.
