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Mason City school board struggles with shower arrangements for kids with gender identity issues (video)

Mason City School Board
Mason City School Board

MASON CITY – The Mason City school board took on a touchy issue at their meeting Tuesday night – shower arrangements for kids with gender identity issues.

The school board wrestled Tuesday night in their special session meeting with how to include shower areas for kids who may not identify with the gender with which they were born. These accommodations would be included in a $603,500 remodel of locker rooms and shower areas in Mason City High School that that board approved during the meeting.  Henkel Construction beat out Snyder Construction for the winning bid.

Several proposals and options for these kids were touched upon. Showers with locking doors was one option the board took a liking to.

Director Doug Campbell
Director Doug Campbell

Director Doug Campbell said a locking door on a shower is “a lot safer environment” for kids who won’t shower with the “general population” (the rest of the kids).  He said these kids are very afraid of the bathroom.

“These kids don’t even want to walk down the hall and go into a bathroom, period,” Mr. Campbell said.  “They aren’t drinking water so they won’t have to go into a bathroom, because that’s how afraid they are.”  He expanded on that, saying that “if there was a “privacy area” (special showers for LGBTQ students) and I was “identified” (presumably by  straight students) I would be going into a kill zone”.  He advocated for spending extra money on locking doors on showers for safety reasons.

Some board members wondered whether they were making too much of the actual need for special shower arrangements for a segment of the school population which they felt was very small.

TJ Jumper, a school administrative specialist, told the board that there are, indeed, kids in k-12 that are identifying themselves as another gender, and many students overall are requesting more privacy.

The board approved the project, with direction given to school staff to actually ask some of the students who are identifying themselves as another gender how they would prefer to have the new showers and locker rooms designed.  The matter was not fully resolved as to how the showers and lockers rooms would be finally designed.  Any modifications to the project would be addressed through change orders with Henkel.

The Mason City School Board met Tuesday night and addressed two important issues: 1) A $600,000+ project involving…

Posted by NorthIowaToday.com on Tuesday, March 1, 2016

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