Aragon provides accessible gender-neutral bathrooms located across from the library entrance, in the theater and the locker room near the music rooms.
While there are several gendered bathrooms on campus, Aragon has only three gender-neutral bathrooms. Students who want to use these facilities often find themselves unable to because they are usually occupied.
“Whenever I try to use [the gender-neutral bathroom,] there’s usually someone in there,” said senior Ash Wyr. “So I don’t use it too often.”
Many transgender and nonbinary students aren’t comfortable using gendered bathrooms. For many students, using gendered bathrooms can cause gender dysphoria.
“It’s obviously a huge disservice to the transgender community or students who need that space”
“I’m very scared to use the boys’ bathroom here,” Wyr said. “I’ve [used] it before when nonbinary bathrooms weren’t available, and I always felt scared because a lot of kids from my middle school come here and in middle school, I wasn’t out as trans.”
Additionally, the bathrooms and resources offered in the bathrooms, such as free menstrual products, are
often misused.
“I feel like people are not using them for their intended usage,” Wyr said. “Usually if you would want to use the bathroom, you wouldn’t be taking the free materials that are provided for people that actually need them, ripping them up and throwing them around the bathroom.”
The Agency and Social Justice class produced a segment on ATV News to inform students of their locations and emphasize the importance of respectfully using gender-neutral bathrooms.
“We want to make sure that we’re properly using [gender-neutral bathrooms] and making sure everybody [can] feel welcome and have access to them,” said junior Antonio Tejeda, who is currently enrolled in the class. “We want our school to be a safe space, and everybody [to] feel included.”
A related problem is the availability of gender-neutral locker rooms. Currently, these locker rooms can only be accessed with a code that can be obtained through the administration, usually during the process of changing one’s name.
“[I wasn’t told] that there is a gender-neutral locker room …” said junior Amit Shilon. “So I was forced to go into the locker room [of] my gender assigned at birth, which was extremely uncomfortable for me.”
The lack of showers in the gender-neutral locker rooms can also be troubling for trans and non-binary students, especially during the PE swim unit. Most students have to take the swim unit four times throughout high school and each unit requires at least three swims per week for about a month.
“I was forced … into the locker room [of] my gender assigned at birth”
“It was really embarrassing because I was struggling with how I looked and then having to be all smelly because I couldn’t shower … didn’t make me feel any better,” Wyr said.
Being unable to shower is not only inconvenient for the students using the gender-neutral locker rooms, but also unfair, as they aren’t provided with the facilities other students enjoy.
“It’s important for [trans and nonbinary] students to be able to shower just like every other student,” said Agency and Social Justice teacher Jerrica Keane. “It’s obviously a huge disservice to the transgender community or students who need that space.”
Last year, the Agency and Social Justice class worked to fix this issue. They talked to Principal Valerie Arbizu, and the facilities team. However, to make major changes to a locker room, the school would need to start more complex processes.
Last year, the Agency and Social Justice class worked to fix this issue. They talked to Principal Valerie Arbizu, and the facilities team. However, to make major changes to a locker room, the school would need to start more complex processes.
“Aragon … has tried to keep our teachers as educated as possible around these issues,” said English teacher Vince Bravo. “Once we recognize a school safety issue around LGBT equity issues, we work toward solving it.”
“We want our school to be a safe space, and for everybody [to] feel included”
Gender-neutral facilities are essential to nonbinary and trans students. Although Aragon has been accommodating to trans and nonbinary students by offering these facilities, more progress can be made to ensure that all students feel comfortable.
