Bathroom Controversies at South

High school students are at school for almost eight hours, and being in school for that long demands the students to use the bathroom at least once a day. With that said, schools should not provide bathrooms that force an unnecessarily uncomfortable environment on their students. Some of the girls’ bathrooms lack the locks to keep them shut, and the boys’ bathrooms do not have doors. South Salem High School is also very prominent about their alliance with the lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, [LGBT+], yet does not provide a bathroom that is oriented towards transgender people.
“By using the girls bathroom I’m symbolically representing myself as a female, if I use the boy’s bathroom I’m symbolically representing myself as a male, and if there’s anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable expressing themselves as either it makes it difficult to choose which one,” Haiden Younger ‘17 said.
Haiden said that they have previously entered the boy’s bathroom [during marching band practise while there were no people], and saw that there were no doors.
“I have talked to friends that have said none of them have doors,” Younger said.
This creates difficulties for transgender, genderfluid, non-binary, or people identify outside of the gender norm to use said bathrooms since there are no doors to give privacy to anyone who may want or need it. Haiden also mentioned that they have endured the whole school day of not using the restroom in order to avoid these issues.
“On days where I’m feeling more masculine, I don’t want to use the girls bathroom,” Younger said. “In our society the places that we choose to go or be shows others how we choose to represent ourselves.”