Students in a New Hampshire school walked out after the school board halted the use of urinals as a result of a debate over gender identity and bathroom use.
The school board decided a few days before the Friday walkout to prohibit students at Milford Middle School and Milford High School from using urinals or shared spaces in locker rooms.
The ban in a town of about 15,000 people roughly 35 miles from Concord, New Hampshire’s capital, was the culmination of a long debate about district rules about bathroom use and gender identity. District procedures say students can access the bathroom that “corresponds to their gender identity consistently asserted at school.”
That procedure still applies. But a proposal that came before the school board called for no longer allowing students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity. Board member Noah Boudreault said he proposed the restrictions on urinals as a compromise.“I want to be clear, it was a compromise to both sides of this issue,” Boudreault said. “It was out into effect last week.
Under the new policy, the maximum occupancy for each bathroom and locker room will be capped at the number of stalls it contains. It also prevents students from using shared changing areas.