Ottawa schools to introduce gender-neutral bathrooms, three years after Toronto
Posted August 14, 2015 2:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Some Ottawa students will have access to gender-neutral bathrooms in the fall, joining other Canadian cities making accommodations for questioning and transgender students.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) wants to make sure all students, including those with special needs and those questioning their gender identity, have a safe place to go to the bathroom.
“We’re proud of it,” Mike Carson, the board’s superintendent of facilities, told CFRA News Talk Radio. “It’s work that can be done, that needs to be done and we trying to keep pace with our communities.”
The CBC reported that about 20 per cent of schools in the OCDSB already have universal, single-stall washrooms. Five or six more schools will be added to the list in September, based on requests from parents and students.
The school board said it was looking at converting some washrooms for accessibility reasons, and decided it was also a good time to help kids who might be questioning their gender identity.
The ‘universal’ washrooms are single-unit rooms. The OCDSB said it is also looking at gender-neutral change rooms.
The Vancouver School Board introduced gender-neutral bathrooms last year, and the Calgary Board of Education adopted a similar policy in February. Both the Catholic and public board in Edmonton approved gender-neutral bathrooms and there are also gender-neutral bathrooms in Owen Sound and Chatham.
The Toronto District School Board implemented a policy for transgender students and staff in 2012, which includes bathroom accommodation. The policy states that “students and staff members will be able to use the washroom that corresponds with their gender identity. However, use of an all-gender single stall washroom will be an option if one is available.”
“There is the odd school that does have a gender-neutral washroom but we don’t track them in that way,” TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird told CityNews.
The TDSB has made accommodations for students but doesn’t explicitly call them gender-neutral washrooms. Students can use an accessible washroom or even one in the staff room, Bird explained.
“It is on a case-by-case basis,” Bird said.
