Renovation at Portland, Ore., high school will make all restrooms gender-neutral

$100 million renovation of Grant High School will do away with "boys" and "girls" labels on restrooms.

Grant High School in Portland, Ore., has announced plans to switch all of its bathrooms to gender-neutral as part of a $100 million modernization project.

KOIN-TV reports that the decision was reached after careful consideration from many people.

“We had a design advisory group that met for a year,” says Grant Principal Carol Campbell. “In addition to those meetings, which happened once a month, they had community input meetings.”

Right now, to accommodate transgender students, Grant High School has taken single-stall staff bathrooms and turned them into gender-neutral options for staff and students. Campbell says that arrangement still singles out students who would like to use gender-neutral restrooms.

The new bathrooms will not have “boys” or “girls” labels, instead being simply marked as toilets. The restrooms will continue to be communal, with each stall featuring floor-to-ceiling doors.

The restrooms will be situated on corners and have two doorways, one of which will not have a closing door, in order to allow easier supervision for teachers.

Gender-neutral bathrooms have been a controversial topic across the nation, but Campbell says that hasn’t been the case at Grant.

Video from KOIN-TV:

About the Author

Mike Kennedy

Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy has been writing about education for American School & University since 1999. He also has reported on schools and other topics for The Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star, The Kansas City Times and City News Bureau of Chicago. He is a graduate of Michigan State University.

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