“OSA and its leadership team have recently made the decision to move the gender neutral bathroom off of the third floor and onto the second. Despite the admin’s reasoning for doing so, students still have many strong feelings towards the matter.” -- Star Schainker
The gender neutral bathroom was moved to the second floor, but “it wasn’t a decision I was pushing.” says Angela Jackson, the Dean of Students at Oakland School for the Arts. “There were a lot of students, particularly high school students that were vaping, and, it was creating a situation [where] the students the restroom was for were not feeling comfortable using it. So [the leadership team] thought that if they moved it, maybe those same high schoolers that had been using it like that wouldn’t be.”
“It was at least trying to create a better situation but there were both beliefs in the leadership team. There was people who were like ‘it’s not gonna make a difference at al’ and there were people who were like ‘well, it should make a difference’ - you know its usually high schoolers that are in there [vaping]” says Jackson. The Dean explains that because she is new she was neutral because she didn’t have the same experience with the school as some other members of the leadership team.
However, despites the policy’s intention, this quickly received heavy backlash from students. In a survey anonymously conducted by the OSA Telegraph, 18 students shared opinions and complaints on the recent administration decision.
“It’s clear that it’s them trying to stop vaping but I never liked the fact that there was only one gender neutral bathroom in the entire school. There should be a gender neutral bathroom wherever there are gendered ones and it is inconsiderate to make gender neutral students from middle school or high school walk to a different floor to feel safe in the bathrooms,” said one response.
A big concern shared in our poll was that now, students would not have time to use the bathroom in between classes. While 100% of the students who took a form to share their opinions thought the move was a mistake, 56% made complaints specific to the space being inconvenient for high schoolers and having the distance be unmanageable in our schedule. “I think it was unnecessary to change the location, and now high schoolers who’s only bathroom option is the gender neutral one have to go all the way downstairs, in 5 minutes” says a student.
Multiple students also brought up the fact that they turned the former gender neutral bathroom back into a faculty bathroom, which made students who used this space feel like they aren’t a priority and that they aren’t being heard. Many of those surveyed couldn’t wrap their heads about the reasoning of the move. They found that students vaping shouldn’t outweigh the issues that are caused by the limitations on the only non gender conforming bathroom. A surveyed student says “When I heard there was a second floor gender neutral bathroom I thought that meant having 2 accessible bathrooms, but no. It was a completely different change that I wasn’t expecting seeing as how many students have asked for a second bathroom for gender neutral, trans, and non gender confirming people.”
A third student says, “I don't know what they think this will change, if anything middle schoolers are more likely to vape in the bathrooms since they cannot go off campus.” As previous points from students have described, this choice has been inconvenient for the high school students. “It just means the vast majority of gender nonconforming kids at this school are going to have to navigate down to the middle school floor, through the middle schoolers, go to the bathroom, and then get back up to their next class.” Many students say that this was disappointing because a lot of students relied on that space and they feel that it doesn’t solve anything. Students said that they wanted two gender neutral bathrooms if they were going to have one on the second floor, and that the non gender conforming students should not be inconvenienced due to a few students vaping in the third floor bathroom.
Finally, students were not only asked to complain, but to asked to find solutions for the move. All 18 students said that putting a gender-neutral bathroom on each floor was necessary, with one anonymous responder stating that “if there is a boys and girls bathroom on each floor there should be a gender neutral bathroom on each floor.”
A big point is that the school has a vaping issue, but that’s a schoolwide epidemic and students think limiting access to bathrooms for students who need the space is wrong. One participant suggested that the school “figure out who’s vaping and deal with them on their own, but don’t blame us or like make us go down to middle school to go to the bathroom.” Four other students mentioned that the school should focus on solving the vaping issue head- on rather than indirectly and being inconsiderate towards who needed that space. Our poll revealed that the belief that its not the space that’s the issue, and that space is necessary even if it has previously been misused.
Despite going forward with this, there is still a substantial belief that the change was a mistake, but not only does it majorly inconvenience the students who use that bathroom, it is just a passive way to deal with the schools vaping issue.
As one respondent summed it up: “I feel like the teachers just wanted to do something about the bathroom problem without actually dealing about it.”
“It was at least trying to create a better situation but there were both beliefs in the leadership team. There was people who were like ‘it’s not gonna make a difference at al’ and there were people who were like ‘well, it should make a difference’ - you know its usually high schoolers that are in there [vaping]” says Jackson. The Dean explains that because she is new she was neutral because she didn’t have the same experience with the school as some other members of the leadership team.
However, despites the policy’s intention, this quickly received heavy backlash from students. In a survey anonymously conducted by the OSA Telegraph, 18 students shared opinions and complaints on the recent administration decision.
“It’s clear that it’s them trying to stop vaping but I never liked the fact that there was only one gender neutral bathroom in the entire school. There should be a gender neutral bathroom wherever there are gendered ones and it is inconsiderate to make gender neutral students from middle school or high school walk to a different floor to feel safe in the bathrooms,” said one response.
A big concern shared in our poll was that now, students would not have time to use the bathroom in between classes. While 100% of the students who took a form to share their opinions thought the move was a mistake, 56% made complaints specific to the space being inconvenient for high schoolers and having the distance be unmanageable in our schedule. “I think it was unnecessary to change the location, and now high schoolers who’s only bathroom option is the gender neutral one have to go all the way downstairs, in 5 minutes” says a student.
Multiple students also brought up the fact that they turned the former gender neutral bathroom back into a faculty bathroom, which made students who used this space feel like they aren’t a priority and that they aren’t being heard. Many of those surveyed couldn’t wrap their heads about the reasoning of the move. They found that students vaping shouldn’t outweigh the issues that are caused by the limitations on the only non gender conforming bathroom. A surveyed student says “When I heard there was a second floor gender neutral bathroom I thought that meant having 2 accessible bathrooms, but no. It was a completely different change that I wasn’t expecting seeing as how many students have asked for a second bathroom for gender neutral, trans, and non gender confirming people.”
A third student says, “I don't know what they think this will change, if anything middle schoolers are more likely to vape in the bathrooms since they cannot go off campus.” As previous points from students have described, this choice has been inconvenient for the high school students. “It just means the vast majority of gender nonconforming kids at this school are going to have to navigate down to the middle school floor, through the middle schoolers, go to the bathroom, and then get back up to their next class.” Many students say that this was disappointing because a lot of students relied on that space and they feel that it doesn’t solve anything. Students said that they wanted two gender neutral bathrooms if they were going to have one on the second floor, and that the non gender conforming students should not be inconvenienced due to a few students vaping in the third floor bathroom.
Finally, students were not only asked to complain, but to asked to find solutions for the move. All 18 students said that putting a gender-neutral bathroom on each floor was necessary, with one anonymous responder stating that “if there is a boys and girls bathroom on each floor there should be a gender neutral bathroom on each floor.”
A big point is that the school has a vaping issue, but that’s a schoolwide epidemic and students think limiting access to bathrooms for students who need the space is wrong. One participant suggested that the school “figure out who’s vaping and deal with them on their own, but don’t blame us or like make us go down to middle school to go to the bathroom.” Four other students mentioned that the school should focus on solving the vaping issue head- on rather than indirectly and being inconsiderate towards who needed that space. Our poll revealed that the belief that its not the space that’s the issue, and that space is necessary even if it has previously been misused.
Despite going forward with this, there is still a substantial belief that the change was a mistake, but not only does it majorly inconvenience the students who use that bathroom, it is just a passive way to deal with the schools vaping issue.
As one respondent summed it up: “I feel like the teachers just wanted to do something about the bathroom problem without actually dealing about it.”
