Bacon's Rebellion

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Partisan Poison: Va Dems Quash a Bill to Protect School Kids

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by

Bob Rayner
in , , , , ,

Del. A.C. Cordoza

by Kerry Dougherty 

How exactly is Virginia’s General Assembly celebrating Black History Month?

By killing a bill to protect children in public school lavatories, introduced by Del. A.C. Cordoza of Hampton.

Cordoza is an African-American. And a Republican. He was famously denied membership in the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus when he was elected in 2022.

Sadly, to the caucus, he’s not the right kind of Black man. Because his views are on the right.

Cordoza claims his bill that would require school personnel to check bathrooms every 30 minutes would not require added personnel nor would it cost taxpayers a dime.

It was tabled, he told the Virginia Mercury, because he’s a Republican.

While the proposed legislation was not expected to impact state spending, Cordoza said his bill was still forwarded from the House Education Committee to the House Appropriations Committee for review. It died in that committee without a hearing.

“It’s sent there to die,” said Cordoza, “to die quietly because they don’t want the world to know that they’re killing a bill to protect little girls in the bathroom, but they want to make sure that a Black Republican is not the one who does it.” said Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton.

It’s actually a practical suggestion, given that there have been a number of assaults in several school bathrooms, and perhaps some that have not been reported. Having an adult stick his or her head in the lavatory every 30 minutes would certainly discourage bullies and sex offenders.

The bill is titled Celeste’s Law after a child who was assaulted repeatedly in a bathroom over a period of 18 months.

The most notorious case of bathroom assaults took place in Loudoun County Public Schools in 2021. School officials there shuffled a student to a new high school after he was accused of assaulting a girl in a high school bathroom. He found a second victim in his next school, but parents were not notified.

That case helped propel Glenn Youngkin to the Governor’s Mansion as the GOP championed the rights of parents to know what is going on in their kids’ schools.

Virginia’s poisonous partisanship in Richmond is not serving the people — especially the children of Virginia — well when it quashes common-sense legislation like Cordoza’s bill.

Shame on the majority. Once again, it’s Virginia’s kids who will get hurt by this petty political posturing.

Republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited.

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10 responses to “Partisan Poison: Va Dems Quash a Bill to Protect School Kids”

  1. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Memory returns to my days at RPV in the mid 1980s, when then-Speaker A.L. Philpott was recorded at a breakfast in his district saying something like this. “We’re not going to let a good Republican bill pass. If a Republican puts in a good bill, we’ll kill it and then put a Democrat’s name on it.” I had a great deal of fun with that tape, provided by a friendly radio reporter from Danville.

  2. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    HB 1528 is a bill with good intentions but poorly written. Here is the main weakness:
    Requires each school board to develop and adopt a policy that requires an employee

    In today’s world you cannot send one employee to do this kind of bathroom check. You need to send two people in. Whatever mischief is going on in that bathroom needs another witness. Otherwise, the kid will turn the tables on you. In today’s world the kids have the full house and the school teacher has a pair of twos.

  3. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Requiring that someone check the bathrooms every 30 minutes has no impact on school resources?

    In my mind, this is more culture war stupid stuff especially considering the source!

    anytime I hear phrases like ‘protect the kids”, or “protect little girls”, etc, we kinda know what follows and who it comes from
    and what it’s really about.

    Both sides do it. I admit. But recognize it for what it is also.

    It’s sorta like all of a sudden we realize we’re not “protecting little girls” in the schools. WOWZA

    I’m sure Hans will follow shortly with his “take”, eh?

  4. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    So, who is playing the “race card” now?

    There are lots of reasons why this bill would be impractical and maybe useless. Two employees, one male and one female, would be needed to regularly restrooms. Requiring that checks be done every 30 minutes would entail a lot of scheduling issues, unless two people are hired specifically to make checks, which adds to the schools’ cost. The majority of those checks would be unneeded–students are in class most of the time. Are checks going to be required while students are supposed to be in class? Most assaults would occur in middle or high schools. Would-be perpetrators would likely be savvy enough to time assaults to occur between checks. The father of the Loudoun County student who was assaulted said that the bill would have protected his daughter. https://www.wavy.com/news/politics/virginia-politics/virginia-bill-would-require-school-resource-officers-to-perform-periodic-bathroom-checks/

    Schools have authority to check restrooms now and do so. Requiring them to do so on a set schedule is unnecessary and would only put one more requirement on schools that are already beset with many state requirements. This is a feel-good bill designed to pad one’s campaign brochure.

    1. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead

      A good secondary school principal is already doing this. I checked the 200 hallway at BWHS 5 or 6 times a day. Usually between classes and right before school started. There was never any trouble in that bathroom. No vandalism, drug use, or anything. They knew I could buzz in at any moment and they knew I was going to do something about any nonsense. I quit doing that the last 3 years. Not supported when I brought kids in for vaping. I agree with the Loudoun father. In fact, the former principal of the school where the incident occurred would have certainly had staff monitor bathrooms as part of their duties. His replacement was and still is a sub standard school leader.

      1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        Your comment about vaping reminded me of what I forgot to include in my comment. If the proposed policy had been in effect when I was in high school, a lot of girls may have avoided health problems later on. There was a smoking area outside for boys. Girls used the their restroom for smoking. There was a joke about how every time the restroom door was opened, cigarette smoke would billow out.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          More and more schools have cameras all over the place. Not in the bathrooms but outside the entrances. I would think pretty hard for anyone to escape being recognized if something happens. And the idea that one could “stop” something from happening with “checks” every 30 minutes is simplistic thinking at it’s worst IMO.

    2. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Yes, the concerns about unfunded mandates tend to come and go depending on the issue… 🙂

  5. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Like so many things decided by the part-time, politicians-for-life who comprise The Imperial Clown Show in Richmond, this should not be a state-wide matter.

    Let local school boards or even individual schools decide how to keep their bathrooms safe.

  6. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    An amended (substitute) bill apparently also died in committee. It required the state board of education to prepare and distribute a model policy, but did not include a specific interval for the restroom checks.

    “https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=241&bil=HB1528

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