"As for the general issue of gender assumption related to bathrooms, there seems to be a few general ideas on how to solve the problem."
-Joaquin Montes de Oca Calica
On an ordinary day in the beginning of the 2018 OSA school year, a female sixth grader entered the girl’s bathroom. Much to her dismay, upon entry she was harassed and physical violence was used against her before she was forcibly removed from the restroom by two older students. According to the victim, the cause for such physical violence and harassment was because the assailants had assumed that she was a boy entering the girl’s room.
As OSA tends to be a considerably accepting environment, I asked several OSA middle schoolers what their opinions are on this incident.
“I think that the thing with [the student] was kind of surprising. If people can't just learn to be better to people around them then our world just isn't gonna go anywhere,” said Shayna Barzell-Weber, an eighth-grade Literary Arts student.
“It makes me wonder, what has society come to?” said Eliza Ayres, a sixth-grade Theatre student, “I don’t understand, can no girls have short hair?”
The student herself, who would prefer to remain anonymous, had something to say about what occurred. “As far as I know, I’m not an object, I’m a person. Welcome to the 21st century--yeah, people are gonna look different, you need to chill out. I think we should be more aware that there are people who are different and, usually, people don’t mean to be mean and be a gender assumer--some people are just ignorant, they just don’t really know, and sometimes it’s hard to remember that, but I just have to. Don’t let others drag you down, even though it’s hard.”
As for the general issue of gender assumption related to bathrooms, there seems to be a few general ideas on how to solve the problem.
“My opinion is, think that it’s fine to have bathrooms that are for girls and bathrooms that are for guys,” Barzell-Weber proceeds to say, “but then, you need to have an all-gender bathroom or a gender neutral bathroom too.”
Cleo Menconi, another sixth grade Theatre student, said, “We should have all-gender bathrooms.”
I interviewed an OSA faculty member for more information on the gender neutral bathroom that was closed on the second floor, “Unfortunately, older students were taking advantage of the gender neutral bathroom on the second floor to hang out and vape and graffiti.” One faculty member says, “OSA cares a lot about its trans and nonbinary students, but we had to close the gender neutral bathroom to the second floor because that kind of behaviour is costly and results in expensive clean up and false fire alarms. The third floor gender neutral bathroom is closer to the Dean’s office, and has better supervision to guard against that kind of behavior.”
“I think people need be more accepting of everyone, also we just need a new president,” Barzell-Weber said. Cayden Feely, yet another sixth grade Theatre student, when asked how he might solve the problem, said, “Don’t listen to our president. Put that in.”
Feely had some ideas on how to solve the problem as individuals. “If you’re a gender assumer, my main thing is: don’t correct me, and don't get into my personal business,” he said. “It doesn’t feel fair for to decide someone’s gender. Whenever I see someone, even if they look one-hundred percent a girl, I always refer to them as ‘they/them’ and I always introduce myself with my pronouns.” Feely has also been the victim of gender assumption in his lifetime. When asked about a particular person who had harassed him, he said, “So the guy that harassed me, I felt like he was kind of insecure. And I felt bad for him, it must hard to be that insecure.”
And whether or not gender neutral bathrooms and ignoring/impeaching our president will help with the problem, not a lot of people are aware that this is a problem in the first place. An anonymous student reported, “I’m not all that informed. I feel I like I should be more informed on the subject. I would like to ” And it’s apparently more difficult than it seems to make people more aware, when I interviewed various students, they replied that they were unsure how to make people more aware of the issue.
Feely wasn’t the only one willing to share stories about gender assumption. “Well, once, in fourth grade, I was at a movie on my friend’s birthday. And my other friend came back from the bathroom looking shook,” Menconi said. “I asked him what was wrong and he said that he was kicked out of the men’s restroom by a man who yelled at him that he needed to leave, chasing him out of the restroom and calling him a girl. Now I was shook. I didn’t really know what to do. Society and schools don’t prepare you for these types of stuff. I think that it’s sad that things like this happen and I think that we should be doing more to stop it. I think that if I could go back in time to that moment, I could have handled it better. I could have been there for my friend.”
As OSA tends to be a considerably accepting environment, I asked several OSA middle schoolers what their opinions are on this incident.
“I think that the thing with [the student] was kind of surprising. If people can't just learn to be better to people around them then our world just isn't gonna go anywhere,” said Shayna Barzell-Weber, an eighth-grade Literary Arts student.
“It makes me wonder, what has society come to?” said Eliza Ayres, a sixth-grade Theatre student, “I don’t understand, can no girls have short hair?”
The student herself, who would prefer to remain anonymous, had something to say about what occurred. “As far as I know, I’m not an object, I’m a person. Welcome to the 21st century--yeah, people are gonna look different, you need to chill out. I think we should be more aware that there are people who are different and, usually, people don’t mean to be mean and be a gender assumer--some people are just ignorant, they just don’t really know, and sometimes it’s hard to remember that, but I just have to. Don’t let others drag you down, even though it’s hard.”
As for the general issue of gender assumption related to bathrooms, there seems to be a few general ideas on how to solve the problem.
“My opinion is, think that it’s fine to have bathrooms that are for girls and bathrooms that are for guys,” Barzell-Weber proceeds to say, “but then, you need to have an all-gender bathroom or a gender neutral bathroom too.”
Cleo Menconi, another sixth grade Theatre student, said, “We should have all-gender bathrooms.”
I interviewed an OSA faculty member for more information on the gender neutral bathroom that was closed on the second floor, “Unfortunately, older students were taking advantage of the gender neutral bathroom on the second floor to hang out and vape and graffiti.” One faculty member says, “OSA cares a lot about its trans and nonbinary students, but we had to close the gender neutral bathroom to the second floor because that kind of behaviour is costly and results in expensive clean up and false fire alarms. The third floor gender neutral bathroom is closer to the Dean’s office, and has better supervision to guard against that kind of behavior.”
“I think people need be more accepting of everyone, also we just need a new president,” Barzell-Weber said. Cayden Feely, yet another sixth grade Theatre student, when asked how he might solve the problem, said, “Don’t listen to our president. Put that in.”
Feely had some ideas on how to solve the problem as individuals. “If you’re a gender assumer, my main thing is: don’t correct me, and don't get into my personal business,” he said. “It doesn’t feel fair for to decide someone’s gender. Whenever I see someone, even if they look one-hundred percent a girl, I always refer to them as ‘they/them’ and I always introduce myself with my pronouns.” Feely has also been the victim of gender assumption in his lifetime. When asked about a particular person who had harassed him, he said, “So the guy that harassed me, I felt like he was kind of insecure. And I felt bad for him, it must hard to be that insecure.”
And whether or not gender neutral bathrooms and ignoring/impeaching our president will help with the problem, not a lot of people are aware that this is a problem in the first place. An anonymous student reported, “I’m not all that informed. I feel I like I should be more informed on the subject. I would like to ” And it’s apparently more difficult than it seems to make people more aware, when I interviewed various students, they replied that they were unsure how to make people more aware of the issue.
Feely wasn’t the only one willing to share stories about gender assumption. “Well, once, in fourth grade, I was at a movie on my friend’s birthday. And my other friend came back from the bathroom looking shook,” Menconi said. “I asked him what was wrong and he said that he was kicked out of the men’s restroom by a man who yelled at him that he needed to leave, chasing him out of the restroom and calling him a girl. Now I was shook. I didn’t really know what to do. Society and schools don’t prepare you for these types of stuff. I think that it’s sad that things like this happen and I think that we should be doing more to stop it. I think that if I could go back in time to that moment, I could have handled it better. I could have been there for my friend.”