Administration closed the gender-neutral bathrooms located at the end of the 400 wing closest to the staff parking lot due to inappropriate student use. Students who need to use a gender-neutral bathroom must use the one in the Attendance Office.

“Students were going in groups and using [the bathroom] inappropriately, and there is no way for us to supervise that space,” Assistant Principal Galen Rosenberg said.

Along with the inability to properly supervise the use of the facilities, the restrooms are easy to abuse because they were not intentionally made for gender-neutral use. Instead, they were set up for multiple students at a time which made it easier for students to abuse the space.

“[The bathrooms] weren’t designed as gender-neutral bathrooms, [and] what made it more problematic is that it had a urinal and a toilet,” Rosenberg said. “It’s set up to have multiple people use it at the same time, it just wasn’t working well for us.”

Although the gender-neutral restrooms will remain closed until further notice, Rosenberg hopes the new Facilities Master Plan will provide space for multiple single-use gender-neutral bathrooms.

“A gender-neutral bathroom needs to be one that is single-use, not one where multiple people can go in at the same time,” Rosenberg said. “I don’t think we are at a place yet where the students would be typically comfortable if they are choosing to use a gender-neutral bathroom where people presenting male and/or female would be in there at the same time.”