San Francisco, CA — Topeka Hill Charter School in San Francisco’s Mission District was the first middle school in the country required to install urinals in the girl’s restrooms. The decision to install the traditionally boys-only sanitary devices came after the board of supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance requiring all schools in the San Francisco Unified School District to create “gender universal toilet experiences” for all of its 54,000+ students.
The ordinance called the Gender In-specific Toilet Act of 2018 has many provisions for restrooms across the city. However, schools, in particular, middle schools, were chosen for the first phase due to both their need for facility upgrades, and the fact that according to its sponsors, they would be the easiest to implement.
“This is a great day for Gender-expansive movements across the country,” said Razz Wilson, a spokesperson for the non-binary gender activist group We Are We or WAW. “It starts with the children, and then it moves out from there. Soon it won’t matter who you are, you’ll have to pee, and that will be that.”
The First Week Was Rough
After the first row of urinals were installed into the Topeka Hills building A1 girls restroom, several students became confused. Many of the girls thought the urinals were sinks and proceeded to wash their hands in the sanitary devices.
This, of course, led to several furious parents raising their voices in anger at the school, the school board, and eventually, the Board of Supervisors.
“I can’t believe they did this,” said Dobie Garrison, the mother of a 7th Grader at Topeka Hills. “She thought the toilet donut was a bar of soap.”
Despite complaints from parents and citizens, the city plans on moving forward with its plans to “de-genderize” all of 124,000 restrooms throughout San Francisco and Treasure Island.
