According to Virginia Mercury, a Republican delegate proposed a bill for every bathroom in Virginia schools to be checked every 30 minutes by an employee to ensure students are safe.
The proposal comes after a 2020 case in which a then 6-year-old elementary school student in Hampton was allegedly assaulted by an older student in a bathroom over 18 months.
Delegate A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton, who submitted the bill said:
“It’s a working paper, so as it passes through, it may be amended. Nothing is set in stone until … it gets that ink from the governor’s pen.”
The Proposal
The proposed House Bill 1528 is named Celeste’s Law after what happened to the Hampton student. The bill is for public schools to be required to have an employee in each school check every restroom in the building no less frequently than once every 30 minutes during normal school hours.
Cordoza said:
“If they are walking around, going to the bathrooms and checking them, on the way they’re also observing everything else that’s going on. If someone is planning to do something to harm other students — they go to their locker, they grab something else — they may see that. So it’s really making the job more efficient.”