I appreciate the Lexington High School bathroom discussions and the willingness of School Building Committee (SBC) members to continue the conversation with families.
During my discussion session this week with Kathleen Lenihan and other SBC members, I spoke about my son’s preference for urinals because they are faster and cleaner, and my daughter’s preference for traditional girls’ bathrooms because of privacy and comfort. In a few years, privacy and comfort will become even more important for her as she manages personal health needs.
That is why I do not understand why the design team chose to reduce urinals by 62%, from 32 to 12 — approximately one urinal for every 100 boys in the high school — while also reducing traditional girls’ bathrooms by approximately 33%.
At the same time, some central administration offices on floor 4 have in-suite bathrooms with extremely short walking distance, while thousands of students face reduced access to traditional boys’ and girls’ bathrooms. That does not feel equitable.
I understand that different people have different bathroom preferences. Some students prefer gender-neutral bathrooms. Some prefer traditional boys’ or girls’ bathrooms. Some boys prefer urinals. That diversity of preference should be respected. It is not right for one group — whether majority or minority — to force its bathroom preference on others.
The purpose of the new high school bathroom design should be to satisfy the practical needs of all students, not the personal ideology or preferred design philosophy of officials or design teams.
I also raised during my discussion with SBC members my discomfort that legitimate concerns from parents and School Building Committee members sometimes appeared to be dismissed by the design team. At times, the design team seemed overly fixed on a single design philosophy while neglecting the basic human needs and preferences of many students.
Lexington Public Schools often says “we all belong”. If we truly believe that, then the new high school should provide practical and accessible bathroom choices for all students. A recent bathroom accessibility petition received more than 430 responses from Lexington residents affiliated with LPS, with 98.4% supporting a better design that improves bathroom accessibility for all students.
I appreciate hearing that the design process will continue to be iterative. However, if the current design team cannot deliver a bathroom plan that satisfies the basic human needs and preferences of all students, then the School Building Committee should seriously consider whether a different design team is needed to complete this important work.
Zhechun Zhang
The “boys lose” framing is misleading because it assumes today’s distribution of restroom fixtures is the fair baseline. — It isn’t.
Today, LHS has 49 boys-only fixtures, 39 girls-only fixtures, and just 11 universal fixtures. Boys already have substantially more dedicated restroom capacity than girls and more than 3.5 times the number of universal fixtures.
Some have argued that boys should retain all 49 existing fixtures while also providing equal accommodations for girls and universal users. But that isn’t a realistic alternative. Replicating today’s level of boys-only access across all three categories would require roughly 158 fixtures, compared with the 105 fixtures included in the proposed design.
Importantly, the proposed design does not eliminate boys-only or girls-only restrooms. Students who prefer those spaces will continue to have them. What changes is that the number of universal facilities increases, giving ALL students more restroom options and more overall access.
The goal of universal design is not to serve a small group of students. It is to create a better restroom experience for EVERYONE: more privacy through fully enclosed stalls, improved supervision through open common areas, greater accessibility and flexibility, shorter wait times, and more restroom capacity that can be used by ALL students.
Rather than taking something away from boys or girls, the proposed design preserves gender-specific options while expanding access, privacy, and convenience for everyone.