Okanagan schools to put gender-neutral signs on single-stall bathrooms
Central Okanagan School Board also voted to prioritize creation of new gender-neutral washrooms
The Central Okanagan School Board in B.C.'s southern Interior has voted unanimously in favour of gender-neutral washrooms.
Wednesday's vote means single-stall bathrooms throughout the school district will be labelled with signs indicating they are gender-neutral. Such facilities will also be a priority in places where they do not currently exist when funding becomes available, according to the board.
We have all used gender-neutral washrooms over and over again.- Central Okanagan School Board chair Moira Baxter
Moira Baxter, the chair of the school board, told CBC's Daybreak South the district had already been creating such spaces.
"We've been putting gender-neutral washrooms inside our schools for quite some time now ... if we had space or if a student requested it," she explained.
The vote, she said, cemented the board's commitment to accessibility.
"It needed to be formalized that this was something the board was committed to and also that everyone in the school district knew this was something that we were working towards."
No opposition at meeting
Baxter said the board meeting was well attended by students, parents and teachers. She said there was no one who stood up in opposition.
"The public, one after another, stood up and said to the board this is something you've got to do and this is a basic right and hopefully you make the right decision," she said.
Issues around gender and washrooms have been controversial in some other jurisdictions.
In 2014, a group of parents sued the Vancouver School Board after it made changes to its transgender policy that included allowing transgender students to use the washroom of their choice. School trustees Sophia Woo and Ken Denike opposed the policy change, which led to their expulsion from the Non-Partisan Association caucus.
- VSB transgender policy causes parents to file lawsuit
- Transgender policy for Vancouver schools draws fire
- Ken Denike, Sophia Woo, former school trustees sue NPA for defamation
In the Central Okanagan School District, Baxter said there was virtually no controversy over this change.
"We have all used gender-neutral washrooms over and over again," Baxter said, pointing out gender-neutral washrooms exist in our homes, on airplanes and in other public places.
"It's not going to be that we're going to have boys and girls and men and women going into the same [multi-stall] washroom," she said.
"These are about the single stall washrooms that we have in our sites and in our school district."
The district includes Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country and Peachland.
With files from Daybreak South
To hear the full interview, click on the link labelled Okanagan School Board to make all signage on single-stall bathrooms gender-neutral