LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Tuesday night the Loudoun County School Board heard some backlash from parents about the bathroom safety project.
The pilot program includes the renovation of five school bathrooms, turning them into all gender bathrooms.
In March, Chief Operations Officer Kevin Lewis shared that the goal is to combine safety and privacy. He told board members they are about 18 months into the project which was initially implemented in the fall of 2021.
The total cost of the project is estimated to be $10.9 million and is included in the FY 2023 and FY 2024 budgets.
So far, Lewis told the board they have created six, all gender, private, single-occupancy restrooms in each high school. They have created four in each middle school and two in each elementary school.
He told the board this is in compliance with Regulation 8040, Section G which states.
“When schools have available gender-inclusive or single-user restrooms or private changing areas, these restrooms or areas should be accessible to all students without special codes or keys,” he said.
This all became a major focal point for the Loudoun County School Board in 2021 when a student was sexually assaulted by another student inside a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School.
Since then, concerns about what's happening in school bathrooms across Northern Virginia have only grown.
"The bathroom situation is so terribly dangerous. They've turned into a haven for drugs," one parent said.
Tuesday night, the board heard from parents about the project.
"Why are you focused on bathroom renovations?" another parent asked.
Another told the board, "There's no three-alarm fire to build new bathrooms."
"Why don't you call single stall locked toilet closure what they are going to be, drug rooms and sexual assault rooms," said another parent.
However, at least one parent stood up and shared support for the project and defended the concept of all gender bathrooms.
"The student would have done the same in a communal bathroom. A gendered bathroom won't stop a predator," they told the board members.
LCPS Acting Superintendent Daniel Smith responded to some of the parents concerns.
"I want to be clear that LCPS is not doing away with the standard configuration of multi-fixture restrooms assigned specifically to boys or girls in any of our schools. All students can use the multi-fixture gender specific restrooms in all LCPS facilities. We are increasing the number of gender neutral single fixture restrooms that offer more privacy," said Smith.
The safety project also includes a technology study where they'll install vaping and air quality monitors, and occupancy sensors.
Click here to see the timeline for the project.