Parents in a small Pennsylvania town were outraged to learn the school board is installing windows in its district's new gender-inclusive bathrooms.
The South Western School District is in the middle of installing gender-inclusive bathrooms at Emory H. Markle Middle School, but parents are concerned that the district is adding windows that make these bathrooms' interior sink area visible from the outside while gender-specific bathrooms remain private, as reported by WGAL.
The district's board president Matthew Gelazela defended the windows, which he said are similar to the district's elementary school bathrooms, in a statement obtained by WGAL.
"In making the area outside of stalls more viewable, we are better able to monitor for a multitude of prohibited activities such as any possible vaping, drug use, bullying or absenteeism," the board president wrote. "Our students should not consider the space outside of our stalls as private within the multi-user restrooms."
Gelazela added that the school took measures to ensure the bathrooms' stalls are private and hidden from view outside the bathroom.
Jennifer Holahan, whose son attends the middle school, told WGAL she was worried when she saw a mid-construction photo of the gender-neutral facility.
"It just raised a ton of concerns for me: privacy concerns, safety concerns, concerns for the kids who need those facilities. I feel like this is a deterrent to keep them from using them," Holahan told the outlet.
Holahan told WGAL she believes the windows are part of the school board's political agenda to target LGBTQ+ students because "if it was a real issue, it wouldn't just be gender-inclusive restrooms."
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