Gender-neutral bathrooms have become a hot-button conversation piece in recent times, and in B.C. that conversation has been conflated by the start of the new school year and the inclusion of new Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity (SOGI) material coming to the classrooms of the province. As a physical structure, however, gender-neutral washrooms in most School District 91 (SD91) settings are nothing more than a common restroom. Gas stations have been doing it for years. So, it turns out, has School District 91.
鈥淚t was the early 2010s when school districts were either retrofitting or building brand new schools with universal-type washrooms,鈥� said Assistant Superintendent Mike Skinner. 鈥淒own south that is standard now on new builds. I think we are in the process of the last high school right now [to receive a retrofit]. Lakes District Secondary School we converted multi-stall male/female washrooms over to two single-user lockable washrooms that anyone can use, so that was I think early 2016. I know NVSS [Nechako Valley Secondary School] in Fort St. James had a big retrofit a few years ago to private stalls with some common wash areas. Fraser Lake Elementary Secondary School is going through one right now.鈥�
These are not monumental projects because these schools are getting a simple extra washroom or two with locking doors. New schools get large banks of partitioned stalls and some calculations indicate it might actually be a money saver on construction to do away with gender doubling the required space and skipping the urinals.
For preexisting schools, however, it鈥檚 a different fiscal story. School District 91 is a leader in the lobbying to have the Ministry of Education pay for the retroactive upgrades instead of using local education budgets, since it is a provincial initiative to conform with human rights provisions that apply to all. SD91 isn鈥檛 likely to get a new school built anytime soon, so it鈥檚 all conversion projects paid for from within.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e talking about plumbing and electrical and construction materials, the costs can be enormous,鈥� said Skinner. 鈥淲hen you think about how things are coming out of COVID with supply issues and labour capacity issues, parts availability issues 鈥� there鈥檚 not much you can do about it.鈥�
One thing that isn鈥檛 adding up, though, is the old arguments against such rooms. The rhetoric reached shrill levels in some jurisdictions but the evidence is now ample that accommodating individual privacy is the preferred method of all washroom users, regardless of gender identity considerations.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 had any issues. Honestly, I was in some restaurants in Vancouver that had exactly the same design,鈥� said Skinner. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about accessibility for all, and in our high schools it has not been an issue.鈥�
