This article was originally published in Virginia Mercury.
Under a bill proposed by a Republican delegate, Virginia schools could be required to have a school employee check every bathroom every half-hour to ensure students are safe.
The proposal follows a 2020 case in which a then 6-year-old elementary school student in Hampton was allegedly sexually assaulted by another student in a bathroom over a period of 18 months.
“It’s a working paper, so as it passes through, it may be amended,” said Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton, the bill’s patron. “Nothing is set in stone until … it gets that ink from the governor’s pen.”
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Proposal
Under the proposed House Bill 1528 , named Celeste’s Law after the Hampton student, public schools would 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.
“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,” Cordoza said. “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.”