“We’re happy to work with you, but it shouldn’t be a privilege to pee in dignity.”
That’s Cameron Craig, a junior at Vel Phillips Memorial High School and a non binary student.
Craig said that students are avoiding eating and drinking so they don’t have to use school bathrooms.
Craig was one of five students who spoke virtually during the open forum at the Madison Board of Education meeting Monday night. The students spoke to draw attention to issues with bathroom security and cleanliness, especially the gender neutral bathrooms.
Mushroom Latex, a sophomore at Memorial, said they would love to use the gender neutral bathrooms, but they do not feel comfortable there. So they use the female restrooms, where they barely feel comfortable.
Chris Fernandez, a junior at Memorial, agreed that the gender neutral bathrooms are not a safe space. Fernandez says that people hide in there to skip class or smoke.
“Not that long ago, when I needed to actually use the bathroom, I didn’t feel comfortable going in the school, and I ended up having to hold it until I got home.”
Student Theo Polet said he has a chronic condition and gets migraines from the smell of weed in the gender neutral bathrooms. But he says that the gendered bathrooms are often flooded.
“Whether or not I’ll be able to use the bathroom should not be something I have to worry about at school on a daily basis.”
Students said cleanliness and safety are consistent concerns, but according to sophomore Robert Cone, the problems don’t stop there.
Cone mentioned seeing a fish in the toilet once, as well as other random, but concerning pranks.
“Some that happened a few times like a pair of trash can fires, or more than a few like people stealing soap dispensers, or stall doors, or an entire dang toilet.”
The students named several specific requests for the school board.
They asked the board to hire more custodians, have more consistent cleaning schedules or increased bathroom security.
Cone said that the school should have new stalls with doors that fit floor to ceiling to eliminate the worry that other students will try to look over or under the stalls. They said that one student has even grabbed their foot before.
The students also encouraged more supervision from staff to ensure bathrooms are well taken care of. Here’s Polet:
“Just today I was dealing with a bloody nose and had to end up cleaning off in the middle of class because I couldn’t get into a bathroom after waiting for 10 minutes, just to clean the blood off of my hands. We are here today to demand cleaner and safer bathrooms because that is nothing less than what we deserve. Thank you for your time.”
MMSD spokesperson Tim Lemonds said the board is thankful the students brought this to their attention and that Madison Memorial has tripled the number of gender neutral bathrooms.
Lemonds said it is challenging to monitor the gender neutral bathrooms, because they are single stall and lockable, but they have other ideas.
“By bringing this to our attention, we’re certainly looking at ways we can make those facilities comfortable and safe for everyone.”
Lemonds said they could monitor hallways to see who is going in and coming out of the bathroom. And because smoking concerns were brought up, they are considering installing smoke detectors to mitigate that problem.
Reporting for W-O-R-T news, I’m Abigail Leavins.
