Last year the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, responded to criticism from gender rights advocates by finally requiring public schools (amongst other places) to have gender-neutral bathrooms. As you may know this battle has been fought all across the country (with North Carolina taking a lot of the media attention for most ridiculous). The outcome for our school was overall positive with some unfortunate losses for teachers, mainly because this mandate comes with no extra funding.
On on each of the fourth and fifth floor of our building there were three bathrooms: "boys", "girls", and "staff". The staff bathroom was easily locked to allow one or two staff members in.
With this change the "boys" bathroom on our fourth floor has become officially the "staff gender-neutral" and the former "staff" bathroom is now "gender-neutral for students." What this means in practice is that there are fewer toilets for students identifying as male and a bit less privacy for staff.
Once we do get funding, however, the plan is to reconstruct the bathrooms so they all become gender neutral with stalls with walls that go all the way to the ceiling and are more sound proof. Until that day comes, this is where we are.
On on each of the fourth and fifth floor of our building there were three bathrooms: "boys", "girls", and "staff". The staff bathroom was easily locked to allow one or two staff members in.
With this change the "boys" bathroom on our fourth floor has become officially the "staff gender-neutral" and the former "staff" bathroom is now "gender-neutral for students." What this means in practice is that there are fewer toilets for students identifying as male and a bit less privacy for staff.
Once we do get funding, however, the plan is to reconstruct the bathrooms so they all become gender neutral with stalls with walls that go all the way to the ceiling and are more sound proof. Until that day comes, this is where we are.
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