LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (WJLA) — Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) confirmed to a news station in Washington D.C., 7News, that they're researching floor-to-ceiling bathroom stalls with shared sink areas for all school bathrooms.
Which would mean no more gender-separated bathrooms.
"From what I saw there were a lot of other issues that were addressed by having bathrooms that were integrated in hallways and gave complete privacy," said Atoosa Reaser (D), Loudoun Co. school board member.
LCPS is also considering building private bathrooms in schools in addition to keeping gender-separated bathrooms. They're spending $11 million to pilot this option in two high schools.
"My hope is that we look into considering all bathrooms are single-use and private, including the locker rooms as well. It's again, it's a big undertaking. It will require a huge amount of dollars," said Harris Mahedavi (D) Loudoun Co. school board member.
But money isn't the only concern for school board member Tiffany Polifko (R).
"We have females in our schools who are experiencing males come into their bathrooms and they're being told when they bring this concern up, they're being told that they can use a single-use restroom effectively, leave their own designated space to go use a different restroom or seek out counseling," said Polifko.
In 2021, the school board passed a policy allowing students to use the bathrooms of their choice despite their biological sex at birth.
And now, LCPS says it's looking to redesign school bathrooms to comply with the Virginia Department of Education's model policy.
But that policy is being rewritten by Governor Glenn Youngkin's (R) administration.
"We received 71,000 comments and we are working through all of them. The sad thing is that tens of thousands of them were actually submitted by bots. It's an obligation for us as Virginians to put parents back in charge of their children's lives and together with caring teachers and counselors, and parents, we can support our children. This is what our model policies are all about and as soon as we finish getting through all of these comments, we'll be ready to get ready to deliver them," said Gov. Youngkin.
Despite the state policy being potentially revised, the district is still moving forward with its $11 million pilot program.
