Debate continues over the design of bathroom stalls at a new middle school under construction in Lexington.

The row of single restrooms at Mary Brittan Middle School was showcased during a committee meeting in Frankfurt last week.

State Representative Matt Lockett, who represents part of Fayette County, said the district's design goes against Senate Bill 150, that controversial legislation passed in 2023, and it outlines how boys and girls bathrooms should be separated.

Notice there are no signs of boys or girls restrooms, and when parents discovered these, they were outraged.

With this new design, I believe the Fayette County Public Schools is attempting to circumvent the requirement of Senate Bill 150 that schools quote and not allow students to use restrooms.

Locker rooms or shower rooms that are reserved for students of a different biological sex.

The district responded, saying the restrooms are not gender neutral, adding they might make the school safer, citing upticks in bad behavior specifically in bathrooms.

Still, Representative Lockett accused the district of not being transparent with parents.

In a new statement, he said, quote, F CPS officials have clearly indicated the removal of gender specific restrooms in Britain middle school.

However, now that the broader public has been made aware of these efforts, they want us to believe a narrative that is a complete reversal from everything they have said since announcing the new school.

Now, this issue came up again last night during a district action meeting with one grandparent, speaking out against the design.

I don't feel that this type of bathroom style provides enough privacy either for the girls or the guys and would be a very awkward situation for a middle school student to be in.

I'm not sure if this was ever even voted on by the board.

Once again, I would like to make this clarification that have been made many, many times.

There are no single gender restrooms scheduled to go into Mary Brennan Middle School.

There are single restrooms that are divided up, that have toilets in each of those rooms, and that is how the school has been designed and that's how the school will be opened.

There is that document that's referred to as, I believe, the facility programing guidelines.

What that is, is an internal document that really looks at all of the things that individuals have, committees that are communities, etc.

When you're actually constructing a building, a new building that takes a look and say, you may want to consider this, you may want to consider that.

It's a variety of things that are really taken into consideration before a new building is built.

That doesn't mean that it has to be in that building.

It doesn't mean that when the building is actually constructed, it's in there.

This particular build, I understand that the architects build it with the option of possibly single gender, but it was never solidified that it would be single gender.

And once the building was started to be constructed, it was determined that it would be single gender at each of the the restrooms.

So for all of the concern and unfortunately, the false narrative that there is boys and girls using the same restrooms, that's just simply not true.

According to the district construction of Mary E Britain is now 70% complete.

It's scheduled to open next August.