Smoky Hill is making changes around the school such as changing the dress code, adding a new redesigned section in the cafeteria, and adding gender neutral restrooms for students to use. The gender neutral restrooms is what’s making a lot more students feel welcomed.

The gay/straight alliance club at Smoky Hill is where students go to be apart of a place where they can feel included and supported, the club meets Thursdays after school at 3:45 in room l-48 and there’s always a great turn out, everyone is welcomed.

Jennifer Stone, is a nurse at Smoky Hill and she’s also the sponsor for the gay/straight alliance club. Stone has always welcomed students to use the restroom in the clinic, ¨we’ve always had a gender neutral bathroom in the clinic.¨

There are a lot of transgender students that have trouble figuring out which restroom to use and oftentimes avoid using the restroom in public for this reason.

As the time goes by, Smoky has done more to make students feel welcomed and feel apart of the community. ¨This year we took an added step of making the signs that identify that we have a gender neutral bathroom,” Stone says, “The last two years we’ve had more request from students — transgender students.”

Students are happy about the openings of the restrooms, with multiple locations in the dean’s, main office, clinic, and the counseling center.

Tavia Ramos is a currently a junior at Smoky Hill and she’s extremely excited about the restrooms, “I feel like adding this to Smoky Hill shows we are more open and a safe environment for the LGBT community and it’s great!”

As there’s been a lot of controversy about the restrooms recently, but Ramos has no worries about the restrooms, “I have no concerns or worries. I’m glad we’re making a positive change.” Ramos has always been active and passionate about the LGBT community ever since she was in elementary school.

As a lot of students have been requesting the restrooms for a while, this 2018-19 school year was the year Smoky Hill finally took the step to make the restrooms official.

Ramos isn’t surprised, she sees it as common decency. “I’m not surprised, but more happy that Smoky Hill is so supporting of such and creating specific bathrooms for those that are transgender.”

Although, this being a big step towards a more welcoming community for students, some don’t really have an opinion about the situation. Simeon Petrov, a junior at Smoky Hill, is one of them.

“Honestly, I don’t really care for that much, because I don’t even know where they are.” Petrov said.