Huge Backlash Over Privacy Concerns and Claims of Discrimination Cause Reversal
The South Western School District’s school board in Pennsylvania has changed its mind about the “viewing windows” that were installed in two gender-neutral bathrooms and covered them up at Emory H. Markle Middle School after the horrified reaction to the posting of a photo by a local mother.
The woman said, “It just raised a ton of concerns for me, privacy concerns, safety concerns, concerns for the kids who need those facilities. I felt like it was a deterrent to keep them from using them.”
After the conservative school board voted to install windows in a children’s bathroom for $8,700, Board President Matthew Gelazela claimed the move was aimed to monitor and prevent misbehavior. Of course, the windows were only cut in the gender-neutral bathrooms that LGBTQ students especially trans students would use, not the male or female-gendered bathrooms, leading many to believe that it was an attempt to shame, punish, and discriminate against LGBTQ children.
On the advice of the conservative Independence Law Center, the school board gave the order to have the windows boarded up. The school board reportedly “consulted” with the group before the vote on installing the windows. Superintendent Jay Burkhart stated in an interview “I believe that we have to protect all of our students. Students are entitled to privacy and I don’t want to violate that.” However, his statement doesn’t explain how the windows, seemingly aimed at humiliating students got approved in the first place.
Kristina Moon, a lawyer with the Education Law Center in Philadelphia, said the board has targeted transgender students for some time. She argued that the creation of multiple bathroom categories and assignments “overcomplicated a nonissue,” adding that the windows were “a horrifying violation of children’s privacy and cruel discrimination targeted against trans and nonbinary kids.”
Gelazela, a Libertarian, declined to comment, telling a reporter that the call was “criminal harassment” before hanging up. He had previously defended the windows as a safety improvement, telling the Evening Sun of Hanover that “making the area outside of stalls more viewable” could help monitor for activities like vaping, drug use, and bullying. Strangely, he only considers that a problem in gender-neutral bathrooms.
The concerned parent, Jennifer Holahan was quoted as saying, “I was a kid at one time. If I was going to get in trouble, it wouldn’t just be the one bathroom, like we only smoke cigarettes in the gender-inclusive bathroom. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
The ACLU of Pennsylvania condemned the windows and said in a social media post on Threads, “We can’t believe we have to say this, but students should NEVER have people watching them in the bathrooms. This is an unconscionable decision that violates students’ right to privacy and will make schools less safe.”
“This is a grotesque and hateful effort to humiliate transgender youth in front of their peers.”
