A school district in southeastern Pennsylvania has outraged parents by installing privacy-eliminating surveillance windows in gender-neutral bathrooms based on the advise of a right-wing advocacy group, the York Dispatch reported.
The South Western School District, located about 120 miles west of Philadelphia, has carved out gaping windows that peer into the gender-neutral bathrooms at the Emory H. Markle Middle School. Bathrooms that are explicitly for men or women only are exempt from this policy.
The windows, ostensibly to discourage drug use and other transgressions, were first floated at an August meeting of the South Western school board. They have since been installed on the district's so-called "gender identity" bathrooms, the product of a 2023 compromise to accommodate LGBTQ+ students. Passersby can now see into the bathrooms' wash areas.
Board President Matthew Gelazela, responding to concern among parents, defended the decision on Wednesday, arguing that, "in making the area outside of stalls more viewable, we are better able to monitor for a multitude of prohibited activities such as any possible vaping, drug use, bullying or absenteeism," the Evening Sun reported. The change is "in similar fashion to what has existed for years in our elementary schools," he added.
However, the Evening Sun reported that the windows were installed based on guidance from a right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+ law firm. At its August meeting, the school board said it had approved the bathroom "openings" to "comply with guidance from the Independence Law Center."
On its website, the Independence Law Center describes its mission asz to "defend human life at all stages and defend the rights of the people to freely exercise their religion, as well as all the other First Amendment freedoms that depend on that first freedom."
Parents with children in the school district say they are uncomfortable with the surveillance, with one parent telling the York Dispatch that her son would not have to visit a bathroom further away from his classroom. Critics have also pointed out that the stated justification for the surveillance would apply to all bathrooms, not just gender-neutral ones, suggesting the policy has less to do with safety and more to do with the identity of those using the facilities.
Jennifer Holahan of Penn Township shared her surprise over the decision with the Evening Sun.
"I was a kid at one time. If I was going to get in trouble, it wouldn't just be the one bathroom. Like we only smoke cigarettes in the gender-inclusive bathroom?" she said. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."
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