Supervisors Seek ‘Family Restrooms’ for County Parks, Beaches

Parents visiting county parks and beaches will be able to take their children to secure “family restrooms” under a proposal approved Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The plan comes in the wake of assaults on children who were left alone in restrooms because they could not be accompanied by a parent of the opposite sex.

“It’s probably going to be a standard for the future,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina, who introduced the motion. “You’re going to be seeing it more and more.”

Although the design is still to be determined, the new restrooms would probably include measures such as locks on stall doors or dividing walls to ensure families’ privacy. Molina’s proposal called for county departments to plan for the creation of the facilities at the county’s 88 parks and 27 miles of beaches, then return to the board for approval within 30 days.

Many malls already have such facilities, as does Ontario airport and the new Staples Center. But they will be a new feature of county parks and beaches.

Molina said the proposal grew out of conversations with members of her staff who are parents, and who spoke of the difficulty in taking young children of the opposite sex to public restrooms.

There is a need, she said, of facilities where “moms can take the little boys to the restroom, so that dad can take little girls to the restroom.”

When parents have been compelled to allow their children to enter public restrooms alone, the results can be tragic. A 9-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Oceanside last year while his aunt waited outside a restroom. Two girls have been sexually assaulted in restrooms in city parks in the San Fernando Valley this year, according to Molina’s staff.

“We’ve looked into these incidents and it’s really shameful these children were hurt,” Molina said.

At gritty Venice Beach, where unconventional characters are as much an attraction as the surf and sand, parents of young children said they were very wary of letting them use bathrooms unattended. To some, family restrooms seemed like the perfect answer.

“It sounds like a great idea to me,” said Kelly Morrissey, 29, of Florham Park, N.J. “It’s all right for a father to bring his little boy into the men’s room, but to do that with a little girl is weird. There are men standing there at the urinals. If the family bathroom has all stalls, I’d say it’s OK.”

Another parent, James Fontana, 35, of Marina del Rey, said sexual predators might be attracted to such family restrooms. “You still need to watch your kids,” he said.