Far-right school board president defends cutting windows into bathrooms to spy on LGBTQ kids

03 October 2024

One school board official in Pennsylvania is attracting a wave of criticism over his recent decision to cut windows into gender-neutral student bathrooms allowing passersby to freely look at minors in what's normally a private space.

In an editorial earlier this week, the York Dispatch tore into South Western School District (SWSD) president Matthew Gelazela after the board approved the installation of the windows in August. The changes to the gender-neutral bathrooms cost the district roughly $8,700, and prompted concern among local parents like Jennifer Holahan — the mother of a 13 year-old SWSD student — who called it "really strange."

"These adults want to make it easier for other people to watch your children while they’re in the bathroom. It’s absolutely mind-boggling," the York Dispatch's editorial board wrote. "No one wants to be spied on when they’re relieving themselves."

In his rationale for adding the new windows, Gelazela said the renovations "are adding privacy in the toilet facility," and that they "increase oversight of the wash area." But the paper noted that he offered no explanation for his claims and that SWSD parents say "their children no longer feel comfortable using these bathrooms."

"It’s creepy and weird," the York Dispatch argued, italicizing the word "weird" for emphasis.

When SWSD first contemplated installing the windows, Gelazela was apparently aiming to have more restrictive measures like those implemented in the neighboring Red Lion School District in 2022. Red Lion's school board requires all student-athletes to compete in the same sport as their sex assigned at birth (which would mean transgender girls would compete in boys' sports, and transgender boys would compete in girls' sports), and requires a student obtain their parents' permission for their chosen pronouns to be respected in the classroom. Red Lion also requires students to use the bathroom associated with the gender on their birth certificate. The changes affect just six students out of more than 4,700.

However, SWSD ultimately opted for a compromise on its bathrooms, with schools now having five types of bathrooms — two boys' and girls' restrooms for sex assigned at birth, two for students based on gender identity, and one gender-neutral bathroom. The windows are specifically in the gender-neutral bathroom, which students complain amplify sounds across the hallway, like bowel movements.

"I feel like the whole thing is just a deterrent to keep kids who might want to use those restrooms from using them," Holahan said.

On the social media platform Bluesky, author Emily Quinn reposted the Dispatch's editorial on Thursday and asked her followers: "Hey, cis folks — especially [P]ennsylvanians — ... would you use the window bathroom? What if your choice was 'window bathroom' vs 'bathroom where i get assaulted by boys for being a trans girl'? how would having that be your only choice affect your experience of school?

The York Dispatch called Gelazela's new student bathroom windows "part of an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ people."

"Cutting a window into these bathrooms is an intimidation tactic designed to make sure students who use the so-called 'gender-identity' facilities — and, let’s be honest, any student who doesn’t fit neatly into the worldview of the school board’s far-right majority — know they’re being watched, controlled and judged," the paper wrote. "In their quest to punish LGBTQ+ kids, however, the misguided 'adults' on this South Western School Board are doing the things they accuse others of doing. This is an invasion of privacy and a waste of taxpayer dollars. It needs to stop."

Click here to read the York Dispatch's editorial in full.

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