TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — School starts back up for another year in Hillsborough County in less than a month and students returning to class will notice one big change come August.
“Our principals have been advised that they need to designate at least one universal bathroom on their campus,” said Hillsborough County Public Schools spokesperson, Tanya Arja.
Each school in the district is now required to have at least one universal, single use bathroom on campus. All students can use these, but the announcement comes on the heels of a districtwide training course focused on transgender terminology, confidentiality and what pronouns to use with students in the classroom. Each principal in the district participated in this training on Monday.
At Jefferson High School, for example, there will be three: two in the main area and one in the clinic area.
“Our students will probably embrace this more quickly than our adults on campus so we need to make sure we communicate with our faculty and that they all understand the changes that are coming,” said Robert Quinn, principal of Jefferson High School.
Back in May, the federal government advised the nation’s public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that matched their gender identity.
One parent in Hillsborough County believes this is just an example of the power of politics taking the upper hand in public education.
“It concerns any parent. What you are looking at now is an overreaction by a lot of different governmental agencies because of the threats if they don’t implement certain things, then they have the threat of withholding funding,” said Carter McCain.
New bathroom signs will simply read “Universal”, with no female or male signs or symbols.
Parents and students will be notified of the change by their school’s principal in the coming weeks. The new school year kicks off on August 10th.
