EJSHS is home to very many different, diverse students. Most schools, including EJSHS, only have 2 bathrooms, for girls and for boys. With many different types of people in this school, it should be a priority to make them feel safe and comfortable in school.

Many students feel uncomfortable and isolated due to the fact that it is shown in this school based on bathrooms that there are only two genders. While the bathrooms are supposed to be for scientific genders, female and male, it can still make students uncomfortable with who they are and the gender they identify with. This can cause and has caused some students to avoid using the bathroom in school, which can be unhealthy. Gender neutral bathrooms do not specify the gender, therfor it can make people more comfortable walking into a bathroom. People won’t feel as labeled as they do when they have to make the decision of girl or boy when using the bathroom. 

Dysphoria, meaning when someone is uncomfortable with their body relating to gender, is something very common in adolescents and LGBTQ+ folks. Dysphoria is often felt when having to try and fit into one of the two genders marked on bathrooms, boy or girl. Some may not identify with either. Dysphoria can lead to a number of problems in peoples mental health, and it is important to try and make as little causes for dysphoria as possible. Gender neutral bathrooms are a good and effective fix to that problem. 

Emerson Schools is dedicated to the safety and comfort of students. However, in some areas they fail to do so. Students of Emerson Schools were never taught about LGBTQ+ and the importance of those lives and those people. If taught at a young age, this reduces the amount of homophobic people in schools. However, some believe that kindergarteners or those in Memorial School are too young to be introduced to the topic of LGBTQ+, however this is not true. LGBTQ+ is just as normal as straight relationships and cisgender people (people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth). However, if people are not taught about it at a young age and are only introduced to it later, it can cause people to see it as weird and unnormal. This can lead to students being uncomfortable with using bathrooms because they feel that they are in danger. This is especially but not limited to transgender students. While they feel that they should get to go in the bathroom that is based on the gender they identify with, they may feel unsafe with going into that bathroom. Gender neutral bathrooms can help solve that problem and make people feel less in danger. 

Join the stand today and help make a change. By signing this petition, you are helping save many EJSHS LGBTQ+ lives and making those people feel more comfortable and safe in their school.