San Francisco elementary school is removing gender-divided bathrooms
San Francisco's Miraloma Elementary has decided to do away with gender-divided bathrooms.
San Francisco’s Miraloma Elementary has decided to do away with gender-divided bathrooms.
The move was made in order to affirm eight students who did not fit into traditional gender norms, described by principal Sam Bass as “kids who range from tomboys to transgender.”
The bathrooms for first-graders and Kindergarteners will be converted to gender-neutral spaces, with the gender-divided bathrooms in each successive area being phased out as the first-graders advance every year. By the time that group reaches fourth grade, there will no longer be gender-divided bathrooms at the school.
The move comes after a law was passed in California that allowed students to use bathrooms that were best fit to their individual gender identities. However, Bass said, Miraloma is “the first elementary school in the district to say [the law is] not good enough.”
Alison Bennington, pro bono attorney for the Transgender Law Center in Oakland, supported the move, saying, “It’s rare for schools to remove the boy-and-girl stick figures from all restrooms.”
Bass said that, thus far, there has not been resistance from parents and that, in fact, he had heard nothing but support, with one parent telling him, “So, you’re just making it like it is at home.”
For students who have struggled with gender identity and have agonized over which bathroom they are supposed to use, the new rule will come as a source of relief for their anxieties.
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