Unisex restrooms gone from new PK-8 design

In the “Weekly Update from Tipp City Schools” newsletter, published on Friday, Jan. 7, Superintendent Aaron Moran provided the new design layouts for all three levels of the PK-8 building. The newsletter stated, "Adjustments have been incorporated based on feedback from community members, staff, and students.”  No further explanations was given. The new restroom design includes no unisex restrooms but shows separate restrooms for males and females, with seven stalls for each.

If the new design follows some of the previous components, both the male and female restrooms will contain individual, private stalls with sides and doors from ceiling to floor and locks on the doors. It was not clear from the design layouts if the male restrooms contained urinals. The separate male and female restrooms are placed back-to-back on each level of the school. Also, each pre-kindergarten and kindergarten room contains a single restroom.

The change to separate male and female restrooms came after Tipp citizens spoke both calmly and angrily against the proposed unisex restrooms at community meetings, a Board of Education meeting, and in the Tippecanoe Gazette’s “Letters to the Editor.” Moran had held four “PK-8 Update” meetings with Tipp citizens over the past several months at various Tipp City locations. The first meeting was mostly informational. However, as Tipp citizens, many parents of Tipp School students learned of the unisex restroom design, the meetings became increasingly boisterous and confrontational.

This resulted in shouts and angry comments from attendees protesting the unisex design at the last meeting. Moran argued the problems that occur in today’s restrooms are primarily due to a “lack of supervision and privacy.” He said the proposed unisex restrooms would have individual, private stalls with sides and doors from ceiling to floor and locks on the doors. But a Tipp mother protested, "Girls will not want to talk about ‘private matters’ if boys are around.” Another said, “Girls might encounter a stall with a boy’s urine on it” because there won’t be any urinals for boys. Moran kept calm, answered questions, and defended the unisex design throughout the meetings, but it was clear attendees were not swayed.

At the Board of Education meeting on Jan. 21st, ten people approached the speakers’ lectern during the “Citizen Comments” period. They spoke against the unisex restroom design, some calm and some very agitated. Typically, there are only one or two speakers during “Citizen Comments.” Superintendent Moran has another tentative scheduled “PK-8 Update” meeting with the Tipp community on Wednesday, Feb. 12, at the Tipp City Public Library. Citizens will have another chance to express their pleasure or displeasure with the new PK-8 design.