天美麻豆

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

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.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a working paper, so as it passes through, it may be amended,鈥� said Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton, the bill鈥檚 patron. 鈥淣othing is set in stone until 鈥� it gets that ink from the governor鈥檚 pen.鈥�

Proposal

Under the , named Celeste鈥檚 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.

鈥淚f they are walking around, going to the bathrooms and checking them, on the way they鈥檙e also observing everything else that鈥檚 going on,鈥� Cordoza said. 鈥淚f someone is planning to do something to harm other students 鈥� they go to their locker, they grab something else 鈥� they may see that. So it鈥檚 really making the job more efficient.鈥�

Cordoza said the culture in schools has changed in recent years, a factor that partly led him to introduce the bill.

He also said his legislation doesn鈥檛 envision teachers being taken out of the classroom to conduct the security checks. The bill specifically mentions employees conducting the checks would include 鈥渁ny school resource officer or any school security officer.鈥�

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to overburden school resource officers or SSOs either,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e just want to make sure our kids are safe, and I want to do that in the most effective and efficient way possible.鈥�

Hampton case

Cordoza said he promised Nikia Miller, the mother of the Hampton student, that he would do everything he could to make sure a similar situation didn鈥檛 happen to any other children in his area or the commonwealth more broadly.

In March 2020, an elementary school principal in Hampton City Public Schools alerted Miller that her child had been sexually assaulted multiple times by another student who was a year older. Miller鈥檚 daughter was 6 when the alleged assaults began.

Miller told she believes there were at least 10 cases of assault against her daughter during an 18-month period. The child developed repeated anxiety and panic attacks and had to attend weekly therapy sessions, the mother said. She was also moved to another school.

Last year, Miller filed a $5 million lawsuit against Hampton schools, the reported, saying the division had been negligent.

Hampton City Public Schools in response stated it had conducted an investigation along with the Hampton City Police Division that found two female second graders who attended different after-school programs had met in a girls鈥� restroom after school hours.

The school division said it had no knowledge of the encounters until after the fact.

鈥淗ampton City Schools staff members remain committed to ensuring a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students,鈥� the school division said to WTKR last year.

The school division said that at the parent鈥檚 request, it had enrolled the aggrieved student at another school and offered counseling.

The Hampton case isn鈥檛 the only Virginia incident to unfold in a school bathroom.

In 2021, a high school student in Loudoun County Public Schools assaulted two female students on separate occasions. The first assault occurred in a bathroom; subsequently, the teenager was transferred to another school, where he assaulted another student. The first victim , saying it failed to follow Title IX processes for sexual assaults or even begin an investigation until five months after the assault.

Cordoza, who said he is familiar with the Loudoun cases, said the General Assembly must 鈥渘ow proactively try and prevent it from happening.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: [email protected]. Follow Virginia Mercury on and .

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how The 74鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.