Patron Accuses Democrats of Killing Bathroom Check Bill Because he’s a Black Republican

The patron of a bill that would have required Virginia schools to check their bathrooms every half-hour said Democrats killed the legislation because he is a Black Republican.

“With children being hurt or raped in bathrooms, they’d rather let that go on for another year than to allow a Black Republican to do what’s right and what’s needed for our kids in the commonwealth,” said Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton.

Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton. (Photo by Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

Virginia legislation would require school bathroom checks every 30 minutes

While the proposed legislation was not expected to have an impact on 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.”

House Democrats declined to comment. Both House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, and House Appropriations Chair Luke Torian, D-Prince William, are also Black.

It isn’t the first time Cordoza, the only Black GOP House member, has clashed with Democrats. After he was denied membership in the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus in 2022, he delivered a floor speech condemning the decision.

“I’m a legislator, I’m Black, and I want to help the Black community,” said Cordoza, who also noted he disagreed with much of the caucus’ platform, at the time. “Maybe I need to start my own caucus, the Virginia Non-Leftist Black Caucus.”

According to the Virginia Department of Legislative Services, Cordoza’s bill was one of 626 House bills in total that failed before crossover — the midpoint of the General Assembly session when each chamber must complete work on its own legislation — and one of 75 that failed in House Appropriations. The House only passed one bill related to school staffing before crossover.

Under the proposed House Bill 1528, named Celeste’s Law after a Hampton student who was allegedly sexually assaulted by another student in a bathroom over a period of 18 months, 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.

Democrats, who control the House and its committees, forwarded an amended version of Cordoza’s bill to the House Appropriations Committee that would have required the Department of Education to create a model policy regarding bathroom checks for all school boards to adopt.

Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, who chairs the House Education Committee, said during one hearing on the proposal that the policy would create “some standards and some expectations across the commonwealth.”

Cordoza has argued the bill would not impose any additional costs since schools could use existing resource officers who already monitor school buildings and administrators to perform the checks. Fiscal impact statements found it would not require additional state funding.

“We’re not hiring anybody new,” he said. “This doesn’t cost anything.”

Cordoza told the Mercury that his legislation doesn’t envision teachers being taken out of the classroom to conduct the security checks. Originally, the bill specifically mentioned that employees conducting the checks would include “any school resource officer or any school security officer.”

The bill follows a 2020 case in which a then 6-year-old elementary school student in Hampton was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 7-year-old student in a bathroom over a period of 18 months.

Despite the bill’s failure, Nikia Miller, the mother of the Hampton student, said she’s optimistic the legislation will pass in the future.

“My goal in the next 10 months is to get in contact with as many people as possible so that this can be a bipartisan effort,” Miller said. “Having A.C.’s support is fantastic, but I’m going to have conversations with Hampton Roads lawmakers that are not in this area.”

Miller has since filed a $5 million lawsuit against Hampton schools, saying the division had been negligent.

In response, Hampton City Public Schools has told WTKR it had no knowledge of the encounters and has responded to Miller’s requests by enrolling her daughter in another school and offering counseling.

In 2021, Virginia had another high-profile case occur in a school bathroom when a high school student in Loudoun County Public Schools assaulted a female student there before assaulting a second student in an empty classroom. The first victim has since filed a $30 million lawsuit against the school division, saying it failed to follow Title IX processes for sexual assaults or even begin an investigation until five months after the assault.

by Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury

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