Portage Collegiate Institute is making students feel safer. They've introduced three gender-neutral washrooms at the school, two in the west building and one in the east. Principal Greg Waldvogel says it's something that came up a few years ago, when their division team attended a safe schools conference where some Winnipeg schools were discussing the matter. While there was little progress for a few years, Waldvogel notes in the last school year students helped move the idea forward.

"This has kind of been in the works for about three years, but over the past year the Queer-Straight Alliance, a student-led group, this was one of their mandates. We worked together with them, as well as the school board and senior administration to get the ball rolling."

Waldvogel says it wasn't a difficult decision to have the washrooms installed, noting the most difficult decision they had to make was whether or not to put a lock on the washrooms. He notes they're going to be monitoring the use of the new washrooms, and make any changes if necessary. Overall, Waldvogel feels despite the washroom becoming a heated topic south of the border, he anticipates a smooth transition starting the new school year.

"I don't think it's going to change the way things happen here, for some students it's going to be a matter of convenience of where those washrooms are. We have washrooms throughout both facilities, and this is just another option for students that think this would be a safer or preferable place to be, or more comfortable facility to use whether it's for going to the washroom or maybe changing for intramurals."

Waldvogel says the all-gender bathrooms aren't new to society, noting universal and family washrooms have become quite common in public spaces. He says they'll be educating students on the new washrooms at the start of the year assembly.