Utah Elementary School students petition to put partitions between urinals
Published at | Updated at
Max Roth, KSTU
RIVERTON, Utah – Several students in Riverton are petitioning for more privacy in the bathroom, and the school board says they’re listening.
Three fourth-grade students at Butterfield Canyon Elementary have started a push for change after a trip to the bathroom left them feeling uncomfortable.
“Kids were looking at me, and I didn’t like it, so I was like, I gotta do something about this,” Jacob Keslch said.
The boys began a petition, which has collected more than 150 signatures. Their goal is to get partitions installed between the urinals at every school in Jordan School District.
The boy’s mother said a lesson in school, as well as a desire for privacy, prompted the effort.
“They learned about petitions in school, in some civil rights class, came home and said, ‘Mom did you know you can petition and have something changed?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, it’s called a petition’ and three days later he had documents and signatures and friend that were involved,” Julie Kelsch said.
Administrators say they’ve heard the concern and are working on solutions. They said there must be a minimum of 30 inches between the partitions, and they said those requirements present some challenges in a few cases.
“This is something that we’re going back and we’re taking a look at all of our schools, and it’s in our new designs,” said Scott Thomas, Administrator of Auxiliary Services for Jordan School Board.
This article was originally published by fellow CNN affiliate KSTU. It is used here with permission.