Below is a summary of the student-administrator “town hall” hosted on Dec. 9, 2021. Administrators in attendance included Principal Peyton Chapman, Athletic Director Jessica Russell, Activities Director Lisa Klein-Wolf, Career Coordinator Shannan Fasold, Nurse Mary Johnson and Physical Education teacher CJ Watson.

Administrators heard concerns of misuse of, and lack of safety in, the gender inclusive bathroom, including weed use, vaping, drug deals and level A and B drug violations.  

The gender inclusive bathroom– the first in the state of Oregon– was created by student leaders eight years ago. Many argue that it is now being misused.

“The bathroom itself is not the problem, behavior is the problem,” Chapman said. 

In order to prevent this misbehavior, male campus security guards have tried to supervise the bathrooms. However, some students believe that this supervision is counterproductive. 

Many queer students who do not have a choice but to use the gender inclusive bathroom said they feel unsafe using it. Students and administrators are unsure what the solution is to make sure the gender inclusive bathroom is safe for all.

“We don’t know what to do when we walk into a bathroom and drugs are out and being used,” Sophomore Cate Brown said. 

Students argued that having keys or setting a “time barrier” for individual bathrooms was not a good idea, and instead suggested other paths of action.

Junior Taylor Levow believes that the first step to making these bathrooms safe is to address the root cause of the problem. 

“We need to address substance abuse,” she said. “We also need to address the cause of how it started.”

Freshman Dorothy Cui agreed.

“We need to create lessons about drug and substance abuse and bring it to classes,” she said.

The gender inclusive bathroom is here to stay. Students believe that administrators need to figure out a solution to this misuse quickly in order to create an inclusive and safe Lincoln community.