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Horrified parents speak out after school installs viewing windows in trans-inclusive restrooms

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/horrified-parents-speak-out-after-school-installs-viewing-windows-in-trans-inclusive-restrooms/ar-AA1rF6MN?ocid=windirect&cvid=26caeb29543e420e918bc948c1280164&ei=47

Story by Mira Lazine (3 Oct 2024)

Pennsylvania's South Western School District just baffled parents and students alike after they installed windows that allow passers-by to look into restrooms specifically designated for transgender youth.

In 2023, the school board tried to appease both trans students and anti-trans activists with its bathroom policy. The board's solution was to establish five different bathrooms – two for students based on assigned gender at birth, two based on gender identity, and one gender-neutral restroom.

This year, a new set of far-right candidates were voted onto the school board. In August, these officials opted to place windows in the bathrooms based on gender identity, saying that they would add "privacy in the toilet facility" and "increase oversight of the wash area." The windows cost over $8,700 to purchase and install.

"We are adding privacy in the toilet facility," board President Matthew Gelazela at an August 14 board meeting. Students said the new windows enable passers-by to hear bowel movements and other restroom activities.

These changes were brought about in part by the Harrisburg-based Independence Law Center, a right-wing Christian organization that also helped instate the district's anti-trans sports and pronouns policies.

Students and parents alike expressed shock at these changes. Students who use the gender-identity bathrooms no longer use them due to these windows.

Okay what? Is this for real? A bunch of mouldy 50 year olds deciding to put windows in teenage childrens' bathrooms is just weird and creepy. I don't care who you are or what views you hold. Putting windows into bathrooms is crossing a line you should stay well away from.

That's just... eww. How do you let people do stuff like this? It's honestly disgusting. No matter who you are or what faux justification you think you have. It's just creepy, weird, and abhorrent. Why do you need windows in bathrooms? God... the people who came up with this are probably very repressed, and should be on a register somewhere. Ick!

The windows would "add privacy"... what are you far right morons smoking? They do the literal opposite. This is why you should never, ever elect anyone to office whose IQ is lower than the digits on their right hand. Which seems to be most of these clowns.

Just when you think the world can't get any more screwed up... you will always be surprised.

The American Right's fixation on crotches (abortion, purity, birth control, LGBT citizens, etc.) has reached Peak Perversion.

How bizarre is this? And why is it that the more religious and more conservative a person is, the more obsessed they become that something awful is going to happen in a bathroom?

The attempt to make out allowing complete strangers to see into bathrooms 'increases privacy' would be gaslighting were it not so blatant. I take it the Independence Law Centre offers the same degree of transparency in its own bathrooms?

One of the most powerful ideas behind the concept of transgender is that gender dysphoria is a reaction to intense discrimination. Or in other words, that the people doing the discrimination are the problem, not the ones on the receiving end. The restrooms in Pennsylvania South West are the perfect story of how ashamed the people doing the discriminating are of admitting what they are up to.

WTAF??  Putting windows in bathrooms is pervy.  Claiming that they enhance privacy is over-the-top loony tunes nutso!

Maybe the bathroom for school board members should be out in the school yard.  No walls, of course, in the interests of "privacy".

Ah!  I see that common sense (or at least lawyers) prevailed.  They boarded up the windows. 

Pennsylvania school boards up window openings  (https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-school-bathroom-window-5cb41549ff122ddfcd99789ee433ed66). 
Story by  MARK SCOLFORO, Oct 4, 2024

A Pennsylvania school district has reversed course and boarded up window openings it recently installed that allowed people in a middle school hallway to peer into two gender-neutral-designated bathrooms, the superintendent said Friday.

The two windows were installed in recent weeks following a vote in August of the South Western School District's conservative-majority school board, a move the board president said was designed to monitor and prevent misbehavior. Such openings weren't installed in any of the school's non-gender-neutral bathrooms.

The openings were covered by plywood on Thursday on the advice of lawyers from the Harrisburg-based Independence Law Center, a conservative legal group the board consulted before ordering the windows installed, Superintendent Jay Burkhart said.

It's a typical cynical mockery. The fake permit that is the actual ban. -We allow you to drive a car, but sorry, we forbid you to buy gasoline. They knew perfectly  that no one would go in those toilets with windows.

Quote from: KathyLauren on October 04, 2024, 03:27:23 PMAh!  I see that common sense (or at least lawyers) prevailed.  They boarded up the windows. 

This is a win for us, because common sense came down on the side of trans people. I find it very encouraging that gaslighting like this was seen through by cis people and compassion won out. Raise a glass to that!

This window installation was a very odd thing to do.

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on October 05, 2024, 04:46:12 PMThis window installation was a very odd thing to do.

I think that @CaringWhisper got it right.  It was to ensure that no one would ever use the trans restrooms, while still being able to claim that trans students were not required to go to the wrong restroom.

Totally agree. I mean I can understand where the logic comes from, but no windows don't belong in bathrooms that people can see inside with. Hugs
Mariah

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on October 05, 2024, 04:46:12 PMThis window installation was a very odd thing to do.

Quote from: KathyLauren on October 05, 2024, 07:36:01 PMIt was to ensure that no one would ever use the trans restrooms, while still being able to claim that trans students were not required to go to the wrong restroom.

That's why the statement issued was gaslighting. Looking at the number of complaints the school received and the amount of media attention, they've bailed on that approach, and now they are into reputation management :-)

Religious zealots can do anything. Here in S. Korea, a few of them even carry out arson attacks on Buddhist temples and other historic sites. For example, https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20201106000635

I think installing windows is at least comical, but arson is a serious, and life-threatening crime.

barbie~~