Public bathrooms among young people of the LGBTQIA+ community have always been a struggle, especially when in school and they’re in the same place all day, everyday. Transgender students and their parents of the Eastlake community have expressed that they are flourishing here, however, that is excluding the bathrooms. Many have claimed discomfort and a feeling of insecurity when in the bathrooms here at school. We do currently have two gender-neutral bathrooms, they are, however, not mainly located, and they are originally designated men’s bathrooms.
If you keep up with Wolves Weekly Update, you’ve probably seen a specific message sent out by Mr. Apple. The school is planning on replacing and installing one or two of our single-gender bathrooms to all-gendered bathrooms. Mr. Apple addressed the fact that many students don’t feel safe or welcome at school when expressing their identity, even part of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially when it comes to assigned bathrooms. Eastlake will be keeping more single-gender restrooms than all-gender restrooms in hopes that the everyone at Eastlake will have more options.
When thinking about possible and safe layouts, Mr. Apple had included an image of the possible layout that the bathroom could be. This is not an official plan, but this is a very possible one.
When installation does begin, the bathrooms expected to be converted will be one of the main D wing/C wing restrooms. If plans for a second bathroom becomes intact, the B wing bathrooms will also be converted to an all-gender bathroom. We still do not know when the construction may begin, but it is in the near future.
