Bathroom Breakdown: East’s new gender neutral bathrooms elicit mixed reactions from the student body

East’s two gender-neutral bathrooms were completed shortly before the first day of school, and have since received differing reactions from students and teachers. 

The plan for the privacy bathrooms — as well as additional seating areas in place of lockers and collaborative spaces — was passed in Oct. 2020 as part of a $264 million bond issued by SMSD to schools around the district. $4.5 million was allocated to East for the renovation. Currently, the building addition and locker replacement are still under construction. 

Located on the south ramp and fourth floor, the bathrooms are made up of eight stalls and eight sinks open to the hallway without a dividing wall. The team of architects, interior design firm, district facility staff and The East Renovations Committee — a board of teachers and administrators — determined that individual privacy toilets would be more financially and spatially worthwhile than single occupant toilet rooms after considering cost, location, safety and security. 

While students like the idea of the inclusive and accessible gender-neutral bathrooms, the majority feel that the lack of a wall or door in front of the stalls is awkward and uncomfortable, according to six responses on an open-ended Instagram poll. In another Instagram poll of 375 votes, 41% of students said they’ve used the gender neutral bathrooms, while only 18% said they prefer using them over the older, gender binary bathrooms.

SMSD's Director of Facilities Tyler Clubb explained that the lack of a wall or door in front of the individual stalls was the most logistically simple and safe design chosen by the team. Single occupant bathrooms — like the ones existing in the library and nurse’s office — use more square footage and cost more to install, resulting in less fixtures available. The team decided it would be the safest design due to potential issues with solid walls and interior locking doors in emergency situations, as well as behavior issues.

Before the gender neutral bathrooms were added, transgender students like junior Ben Gilman had to ask administrators for permission before using the bathroom opposite of their gender assigned at birth. 

“I just said, ‘OK,’ but I'm not going to ask if I need to use the bathrooms,” Gilman said. “I'm going to use the ones that I want to use. This is great because this is a step towards treating trans people like just normal people. They won’t have to have a conversation with someone to be able to use the bathrooms.”

Gilman believes that even though the bathrooms’ may feel awkward or too out-in-the-open for some, it’s a great option for students who identify out of the gender binary or don’t feel comfortable using the restroom corresponding to their assigned gender. The only existing options before this year were one of two gender neutral bathrooms in the library or in the nurse’s office.

Junior Cil Hoch is now more comfortable identifying as gender-fluid in school with the accessibility of a bathroom that doesn’t require them to fall under one of the new genders.

“Not only is that a step that can be embarrassing or tedious, but if you have a class that isn't on the fourth floor, not a lot of teachers [will] allow you to travel that long,” Hoch said. “So a lot of students were kind of forced to use a bathroom they weren’t comfortable with.”

Though promoting inclusivity and accessibility for all students to use a bathroom regardless of gender identity, Gilman and Hoch have noticed an increased stigma around using the bathrooms. According to Hoch, there’s a sense of judgement of those who choose to use the restrooms, and Gilman has overheard hallway conversations referring to them as “the transgender bathrooms.”

“For something as universal as a bathroom to a lot of students, it doesn't seem like a big change,” Hoch said. “But for the students who need it to feel comfortable, it is a huge change. Even if it's a change you see as small or unimportant, please be aware that this is something big for other students.”

Though there are currently no plans to install more privacy restrooms at East, the rest of the bond plans to build privacy restrooms at each high school and middle school in the district in the upcoming years.