The lack of gender-neutral bathrooms harms students, and here’s how we can help.

Maria Carrillo High School campus bathroom map (Madeleine Smith,The Puma Prensa)

Written By: Madeleine Smith, Staff Writer

Whether it’s because the bathrooms are too crowded, it smells, or there isn’t soap in the dispenser, school bathrooms are generally uncomfortable places. But, some students feel truly out of place, like they don’t belong in a specific bathroom. 

All 1589 students of Maria Carrillo High School are currently limited to a single gender-neutral restroom available to them, leaving gender-non-conforming students with only one place to relieve themselves. District involvement in the issue has increased in the last few years, with board discussions about the issue and the beginnings of plans for new bathrooms, but this is a problem that queer students have been facing for so much longer than that, and our students need a more inclusive campus now.  

The sheer lack of options has left these students at MCHS feeling ostracized. In a discussion with Soph Arnold, a 2024 graduate and previous member of the Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at Carrillo, she explained: “It made them feel unwelcome and it didn’t help feelings of uncertainty that they were dealing with with their own identity.” Gender non-conforming students are already experiencing so much stress in their self-discovery and self-expression. To leave them with one–rather inconvenient–spot to simply relieve themselves, in a place where they spend most of their day, feels especially cruel. 

The problem isn’t just that there aren’t enough gender-neutral bathrooms for those that need them, but that the one we have is in an unsuitable location, in the Health Office, at the front of the school. This makes that bathroom less accessible to those that need it. Students who use the gendered bathrooms often don’t have the time to go during breaks or passing periods anyway, and they have a larger amount of bathrooms that are also more centralized on campus. If they can’t stop by one of their bathrooms, how would non-conforming students ever have time to go all the way to the front of the school?

In addition to its unfavorable location, the bathroom in the Health Office isn’t always available. Arnold explained: “You [weren’t] allowed to use the bathroom without medical reason during my junior year.”

The School Nurse, Karen Lloyd, clarified: “[The bathroom] is not considered a student general use bathroom. It’s a medical bathroom, and so all the uses are case by case, but most of them are pre-authorized… Policy is that it’s kept clean and sanitary, for health reasons and infection control reasons.” Due to the fact that this bathroom has to be kept at such a high level of cleanliness, the process to use the bathroom is more complicated than a regular bathroom. 

In terms of using the bathroom as a gender non-conforming person, without medical reason, Lloyd explained: “That’s a request that I consider for an authorized use of the bathroom… I might talk to the parents or talk to the student to find out what the need is and what’s behind it before I grant the authorization. That issue is a valid issue for the use of this bathroom and we need to make sure we can have access for all of our students for bathrooms on campus.” 

Despite efforts to have the bathroom open to students at all times, policies and restrictions for health reasons can keep it from being as obtainable as is necessary. 

With only one gender-neutral bathroom, at the very front of the school that isn’t even always accessible, it makes sense that non-conforming students feel excluded. 

The bathroom’s inaccessibility leaves these students with two main options: be mentally uncomfortable in one of the gendered bathrooms, or be physically uncomfortable, not going to the restroom for the entirety of the school day. Either way, students’ health is at risk. 

This “mental discomfort” has the scientific name: gender dysphoria. The American Psychiatric Association defines gender dysphoria as “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity.” This is what students who need a gender-neutral bathroom experience all the time, and as a place where they spend most of their days, schools should be attempting to limit the amount of distress they are causing their students. 

Gender dysphoria, in this situation, can also lead to effects on physical health. In a conversation with Meleah Yee, a senior member of GSA, we gathered more insight on how the issue is impacting the health of these students. She commented on the impacts, explaining: “It brings a lot of gender dysphoria for kids who don’t align with either of the bathrooms or are just not comfortable going in them and a lot of people choose not to go to the bathroom at school. It can be very harmful to health and UTIs [urinary tract infections] are not good!” 

And it’s not just UTIs! Healthline states that “if you hold your pee as a matter of habit, your bladder can start to atrophy. Over time, you may develop incontinence.” Incontinence is what happens when you can’t control when you relieve yourself. Imagine not being able to choose when you “go!”

Students are at risk of experiencing psychological distress, developing bacteria infections, and practicing habits that can lead to very serious health issues. Despite all of these impacts of the lack of gender-neutral bathrooms, nothing has or will be done about it shortly. 

Catherine Gotfrid, the Project Facilities Manager for Santa Rosa City Schools refused an in person or over the phone interview, so explained in email correspondence: “It can take more time than some would like, but the good news is that the District is already underway with the design of these all-access bathrooms at each secondary school site. It will still take a few years to fully design and build these restrooms at all ten secondary schools across the District.”

District action is great, but change in “a few years” is not going to help in the present. This means that it is up to students, school site administrators, and additional staff to make progress that encourages inclusion now. We can push for more efficiency in District movement, or we can designate the bathrooms in the Performing Arts building to be gender-neutral, or we can just be more accepting and empathetic. 

School should be a welcoming place, in every way. No one should feel uncomfortable, or distressed, and we definitely shouldn’t risk students’ health. An increase in gender-neutral bathrooms will benefit the students here in the future and, ensuring that Carrillo is more inclusive, will benefit us now and then.