Eighth‑grader says Julian’s gender‑neutral stalls are often unusable and unclean; board to follow up

Cody Boucher, an eighth‑grade student at Julian, told the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Board of Education that gender‑neutral bathroom stalls in the building are frequently unusable and that the condition has made a basic daily task difficult for gender‑diverse students.

"I actually spend 5 minutes cleaning up usually for students who don't even need to use those stalls in the first place," Boucher said during the public‑comment portion of the board meeting. Boucher said stalls were sometimes used to store food and drink, and that one stall had a homophobic slur inside the door that, after being reported to multiple adults, remained in place.

Boucher described routine operational problems that have limited access: several gender‑neutral stalls had been locked for about a month to two months, forcing students who rely on them to climb four flights of stairs and spend "8 to 10 minutes" to use a restroom. "We use gender neutral spaces to keep everybody around us comfortable," Boucher said. "But for queer students at Julian, it is undoubtedly a really bad one."

Board members acknowledged the comment and the chair asked staff to contact the student to follow up. No formal action to repair or reassign facilities was recorded at the meeting; board members and staff noted they had heard similar reports at other schools and said they would investigate cleanliness, access and any needed corrective steps.

The student’s remarks also included a claim that school staff had not removed a slur after it was reported. The board did not offer a record of disciplinary or remediation steps during the meeting; staff follow‑up to the student was the next step described on the record.

The public comment concluded before the board moved on to transformational‑goal updates and the K–5 math pilot presentation.