By JACOB CHRISTIAN- This past August, the administration at IHS decided to convert the men’s restroom to a gender neutral bathroom in the art wing of the high school.  This action was not unprecedented, as many schools around the country have been allocating gender neutral restrooms over the past couple of years. Surprisingly, this was not even the first one at IHS. The first gender neutral restroom was placed in the ideal lab, but was essentially inaccessible to students who are not in IDEAL.

Concerning the motivation behind the change, principal Wade McElheny stated, “Our tech-ed IDEAL students already had this courtesy available to them, so we just extended the courtesy to our brick and mortar students.”

A small selection of students were interviewed about their awareness of this change and were asked to give a short statement about their thoughts and opinions of it. They were interviewed over the course of two periods, and selected at random from the students in the Upper Commons study hall.

Laken Bonatch, a senior, was not aware of the change but thought that, “It’s a really good change because there haven’t been any in the school so far.”

Sophomore Andre Rubinstein was also unaware, saying, “I kind of support it because there could be other students who appreciate what they did and not feel out of place.”

While many students had positive feelings about the change, a portion of the students seemed apathetic towards the change and a couple were a little uncomfortable about it, saying that they wouldn’t use it any time soon.

Junior Brady Kodman expressed, “If you define as something else, that’s your choice and that’s up to you.”

In total, twenty students were interviewed, and seven issued statements about their thoughts on the matter. Four students were aware of the change beforehand, and the rest had no awareness about the change.

While this seems to be an occasion that would normally stimulate discussion in the student body, the change went over quietly and most students aren’t even aware that it has even happened, with only about 10% of those surveyed having any awareness of the change whatsoever.

[Photo by Jacob Christian]

Photo Caption: “The placard was installed over the summer, replacing the previous men’s restroom sign.