New Fayette school bathrooms won’t be gender-neutral despite lawmaker’s claims, district says

Fayette school officials say that restrooms at a new middle school will be designated for boys or girls, not gender-neutral as state Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, claimed at a Tuesday legislative meeting.

Lockett told Kentucky lawmakers on the General Assembly’s Interim Education Committee in Frankfort that bathrooms at Mary E. Britton Middle School in Lexington’s Hamburg area would be gender-neutral rather than gender-specific, and he argued those bathrooms would be unsafe.

But after the meeting, Fayette district spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith told the Herald-leader that would not be the case.

“There are single person stalls in pods with sinks outside and signage will designate if the pod is for girls or boys,” said Davidson-Smith.

School bathrooms have become a hot-button issue for Republican lawmakers across the country in recent years as districts grapple with whether to install new policies that cater to transgender students.

And Lockett argued Tuesday that a planned policy at the new Lexington middle school would include “gender-neutral, open-concept restrooms, sinks and mirrors (that) will be used by both sexes. Gaps under the doors to the stall can be used to exploit or intimidate other students. These restrooms that are unsafe and put students, particularly female students, at risk of harm, injury, emotional trauma or worse.”

Lockett, who represents Nicholasville and part of Lexington, held a presentation, and other lawmakers quizzed Fayette Superintendent Demetrus Liggins at the meeting.

It was not immediately clear why Lockett thought the bathrooms at the school would be gender-neutral, though he said families had contacted him with concerns. Liggins said during Tuesday’s meeting that the school bathrooms would be designated for boys and girls, and the district confirmed his statements after the meeting.

The plan does call for a slightly different design from previous school bathrooms. Single-person restrooms will be floor-to-ceiling, the district said, and doors will automatically shut when they’re occupied. But Davidson-Smith, spokesperson for the district, said the facilities would remain separated by gender.

Lockett did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, Lockett mentioned a new procedure at Henry Clay High School in Lexington that requires restrooms to be closed during five-minute transitions between classes, barring medical emergencies. He noted that Paul Laurence Dunbar has a similar policy.

The change at Henry Clay is in response to an increase in “behavior events” in restrooms, Davidson-Smith told the Herald-Leader recently.

“Behavior events in restrooms have risen in FCPS and across the state in recent years. The Kentucky Department of Education, in their latest Safe Schools Report, noted that behavior events in restrooms have increased by 216% across the state,” Davidson-Smith previously said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Liggins told lawmakers that students had done $42,579 in damage to Fayette school restrooms as a result of a TikTok challenge in 2021.

Kentucky’s 2022-23 Safe Schools Annual Statistical Report said incidents reported to have taken place in the restroom rose significantly. The most common events to have been reported in restrooms included tobacco use, tobacco possession, fighting and drug possession, the report said.

Liggins presented numbers that showed that 17% of Kentucky middle and high school students feel unsafe in the bathroom.

This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 6:09 PM.