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By Guy Page
Since it was published on Friday morning, the VDC story about a Missisquoi Valley Union high school bathroom headlined “High school opens large bathroom for both sexes” has received tens of thousands of views and about 270 comments – including one from the school administrator tasked with student behavior and safety.
Missisquoi Valley Union High School serves Swanton, Highgate and Franklin, three Canadian border towns in Franklin County. Over the summer school authorities converted two side-by-side, boys and girls bathrooms into one large room for both sexes, containing three floor-to-ceiling locked stalls. Parent Jocelyn Reighley sent a letter to school authorities last week, they responded publicly, and VDC covered both sides.
Most of the readers’ comments go something like this entry: “Completely private stalls in a mixed male female population rest room for teenagers, what could go wrong? Oh, boy!” A few readers said in effect, ‘no big deal, they do this in other places, too.’
And, the story also prompted MVU Director of Student Affairs Steve Messier to defend the renovation in a Facebook comment underneath a September 18 posting of the story. He writes:
“The headline of this article completely mischaracterizes the new set-up. The old version of a large “group-style” bathroom created far more opportunities for vandalism, vaping, and fights to take place. This renovation allows for student privacy and removes the ability for large groups of students to congregate and misuse the space. As the administrator tasked with addressing student behavior and building safety at MVU, this is a welcome and positive change.”
The new bathroom configuration took parents like Reighley by surprise. The project is mentioned as a one-line agenda item on a June 2025 facilities committee meeting, but there have been no minutes posted online since March. A YouTube video of facilities changes in district buildings in Swanton, Highgate and Franklin, posted this summer, does not portray the new high school bathroom.
The bathroom controversy is not listed specifically on the agenda of the next MVU School District Board meeting, on September 23. However, there is a public comment, shortly after the meeting begins at 6 PM in the Franklin elementary school library. The meeting also is accessible by zoom.
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Categories: Education
To be perfectly honest, although males certainly do NOT belong in female restrooms nor vice versa, these types of extremely private, closed stall restrooms that allow for more personal space for users ought to work out fine – though I don’t agree that taxpayer money should be used to remodel school bathrooms IF they are not in need of remodeling to begin with simply to cater to the crazed & anti-science ideology of mentally ill students who “identify” as the opposite sex.
However, like the aforementioned Guido Supermarket model which can be seen in western MA. – these spaces are CONSIDERABLY more private than any men’s or women’s public restrooms typically are — and unisex bathrooms have been utilized in many countries in Europe for decades. It is merely within the tourist areas there specifically that one can still find restrooms that exclusively designate separate rooms for men or women, in order to accommodate American tourists.
In addition, these unisex restrooms have been used on select college campuses for decades as well. The kids apparently don’t consider it a big deal.
What is MORE important is to teach children and young adults consistently & throughout life to behave & live their lives morally and responsibly and to treat others with respect. That way, regardless of what environs they find themselves in, they have hopefully learned to make decisions that are godly & virtuous – traits that Charlie Kirk was always proclaiming – as the good disciple he was.
But how difficult would it be for two children of the opposite sex to lock themselves into one of these stalls and go to town with each other? This is giving them a private place to have sex.
However, it does place girls in a private, unmonitored space with boys.
No two people will ever agree 100% on what a school bathroom should include or not include. My concern is that the single most effective solutions to these differences, be they bathroom configurations or class curricula, continue to be rejected in order that certain groups profit (that’s right – they ‘profit’) from the restricted investment of taxpayer money.
Isn’t anyone curious why administrators, politicians, and various public education employee organizations and boards, never comment or explain why they resist school choice governance? Isn’t the answer to that question becoming more and more obvious?
It’s because they gain their sustenance from the status quo… period. These schools don’t serve students, at least not in the way they claim. Their intention is not to serve parents or those who employ school graduates either. The public education system is not only an abject failure to the people it purports to serve, it’s becoming more and more dangerous, physically and mentally, because students are confined to them, much as criminals are confined to prisons, ostensibly to protect society and reintegrate them as productive citizens. But ‘productive’ in what way?
When the public education system claims it’s serving the community, it’s actually preparing a menu to serve its students, their parents, and community members to the public education monopoly – in the same way a cafeteria serves lunch. This bathroom bruhaha is nothing more than a side dish.
Wait! Let’s expand on this insane idea. Teachers want less vaping, less fighting, and less vandalism. Well, here we go. Let’s make them Student/teacher bathrooms (with no hidden options for the teachers/administrators) Problem solved!
Anyone and everyone that came up with this idea should be prosecuted as pedophiles! They are also a threat to the security of our children and our schools. Remove them immediately!