In Australia, a “woke” high school cut the bathroom doors in order to offer “non-gender” areas for kids to use the restrooms. Although the toilet stalls are now available to anyone and everyone, regardless of their birth certificate sex, parents are furious and feel that the school went too far by removing the restroom doors. Peter Kuss, the Principal of Golden Grove High School in Adelaide, wrote a letter to parents informing them that the school’s restrooms have been deconstructed of all gender labels and are open to all students, regardless of their gender.
“The health, safety, and wellbeing of all young people are important to us. We understand that accessing toilet facilities whilst at school can cause anxiety for some students,” Kuss wrote. “The guidelines for the provision of student toilets in school has evolved over time.”
The head of the school went on to say that the public high school will employ state-of-the-art cubicle-style restrooms so that people can feel at ease using the facilities.
“New toilets provided as part of the recent capital works project… and the Discovery Center upgrade completed in April 2022 have been constructed to meet the new standards. This includes providing lockable, non-gendered, individual cubicles, with handwashing facilities included inside the cubicle, accessed directly from the common space or open corridors.”
“As Golden Grove High School is now in its 33rd year of providing quality education, the original student toileting facilities do not reflect do not reflect these new standards. We are taking steps to modify the design of the existing toilet blocks, so they mimic as much as possible the look and feel of toilet facilities in the new building.”
This is where the public school’s choice becomes rather obnoxious for parents.
“We will be removing the two outer doors leading into the existing toilet blocks…, so the toilets in these spaces are more easily accessible from the foyers. Privacy is still provided to students through access to lockable, individual cubicles within the toilet blocks. It is not possible to provide handwashing facilities inside existing toilet cubicles, so students will need to complete this task at the communal wash basins outsides of the cubicles.”
“We believe this action will provide greater safety for student usage and will more closely align our older toilet blocks with the new standards.”
Parents are concerned that restrooms with no doors may provide little privacy for students. Parents want their children to be secure at school and not exposed while they use the restroom.
An Education Department spokesperson stated, “Students’ privacy isn’t compromised. All the cubicles have lockable doors, and only hand washing areas are visible from hallways or foyers.”
While Australia is making this move, do you believe that public schools in the United States will also eliminate bathroom doors?
