Legal "right" no, moral and ethical imperative - very much so. And you need at least 4 spaces: girls, boys and two gender neutral ones.
Ideally there are areas that are basically identical to the changing room you find in a department store so individuals can step into them and latch the door so no one can barge in on them while they are dressng.
Yes, I know gang showers may be the "thing" for the sports teams, but times have changed and privacy needs to be available for all. No student (or adult) should ever be told they have to strip in front of anyone else.
Students should NOT be changing in bathrooms as that's not sanitary.
I encourage HS costumers to include "skin parts" such as camisoles, bike shorts, boxer-briefs and full-coverage bras as the foundational layer for their costumes as those typically cover more than swimming attire would and the students may feel comfortable changing with those base layers remaning in place, but privacy is key.
An admin who says otherwise will soon be a sexual harassment lawsuit defendant.
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Kristi Ross-Clausen
Safety Maven/Consultant
IATSE 470/Actors Equity Member
Alliance for Wisconsin Theatre Education
Association for Quality in AV Board
AVIXA/USITT
Teacher, Author, Speaker
www.theaterhealthandsafety.comAppleton, WI
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-09-2024 08:45
From: Jordyn Declemente
Subject: Do students have a right to dressing rooms?
Bit of an odd situation i have going on regarding our dressing rooms backstage. So i am revamping the theatre department at a high school. We are getting ready to do a play and i recently found out that both dressing rooms and the green room are being used as athletic offices. When i mentioned this to admin all they really said was "oh well, i guess we don't have dressing rooms". Is this allowed? There is nowhere for them to go backstage now. The only bathrooms are in the dressing rooms, so they will have nowhere to change / get ready / wait backstage. I was wondering if there was any sort of statue that states that students need to be given access to the dressing rooms.
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Jordyn Declemente
John I. Leonard Community High School
FL
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