New middle school builds gender-neutral bathrooms

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Mary E. Britton Middle School is set to open August 2025, but the multi-million dollar building has caused controversy over what Fayette County Public Schools is calling single-stall bathrooms.

This means both boys and girls would share the same bathroom. The bathroom will have floor to ceiling stall doors and a communal sink area. There will be no doors seperating the bathroom area from the hallway.

“It is the safest type of construction for a bathroom,” FCPS Chief Communication Officer Dia Davidson-Smith said.

Parents and other Lexington residents don’t agree.

“Smoking, vaping, drug injection; all of that could take place inside a locked door floor to ceiling,” Lexington resident Warren Rogers said.

Rogers says he thinks FCPS kept this information from the public until the bathrooms were vetted.

Davidson-Smith says this type of bathroom format will continue to appear in new construction.

“It’s unknown, it’s new and it’s the unknown and that’s what scares people,” she said. “Once they see this in practice in action, I’m confident that the parents who have these concerns will feel much better about it.”