Siobhan Jebb is a 2024 Staples High School graduate, and former co-captain of the volleyball team. She attends the College of Charleston, double majoring in political science, and women’s and gender studies.
As a senior, Siobhan wrote about the inequity between the boys and girls locker rooms at Staples. On Wednesday — more than a year later — the Board of Finance voted to spend $30,000 in soft costs, to explore creating 1 or 2 “team rooms” for girls varsity sports.
Siobhan’s piece has been adapted for a “Students Speak” submission.
I am jealous.
As I walk through the Staples girls locker room, I fantasize about a space that I could have used. But reality quickly interrupts that thought.
I see a pile of crutches, rusted and molded ceramic in our “showers,” ripped boxes, caution tape, and worn pieces of paper saying “Do Not Use” stuck to the wall.
The sign is not needed. The showers are too unsanitary, and besides, broken.
A handicap shower in the Staples girls locker room …
Not to mention a wooden table propped on its side, blocking girls from getting into the shower stalls — as if we would want to, in their condition.
I am jealous. I feel angry. Despite playing volleyball at Staples, I haven’t grasped the gaps in athletics here — specifically with the locker rooms — until senior year.
Looking back, I hated going to the girls locker room before and after gym class. The lighting is depressingly dim, and the space feels like an abandoned basement.
… and another view.
Turning the corner into the bathroom I would catch the “shower room” in the corner of my eye, but never paid much attention. It was never discussed.
I never thought of our locker room as “bad,” because I had no idea what the boys had access to, or what girls sports have access to at other schools.
After 4 years in the athletic program, 3 as a varsity player and 1 as co-captain, it wasn’t until my final year that I became aware of the inequity.
It was just weirdly accepted, like everyone was waiting for someone to step up.
Why wasn’t this talked about? Why do we allow girls to wonder why they aren’t worthy of the resources and space the boys have? One could argue I was one of those girls.
Staples boys locker room showers.
The boys have not 1 but 2 locker rooms. One includes clean showers. This doesn’t sit right, as I walk past what’s supposed to be the handicap shower stall in the girls locker room.
I see paper taped on the wall: “SHOWER CLOSED MAINT. DEPT.” The date on the bottom says “12/06.”
2006 burns in my brain. I take a deep breath. But it brings dust and a damp smell, which only angers me more.
The girls showers have been closed for 19 years.
I am jealous. My best friend Liv, in Mamaroneck, New York, got to clean out her cubby at the end of her volleyball season. I didn’t.
I am confused. I saw the customized cubby lockers for the boys at Staples, while girls don’t bother learning their locker combos because our backpacks can’t fit.
Throughout my last high school volleyball season, I became more aware and annoyed that we didn’t have an appropriate space to go as a team. A space we could talk together, a setting away from the coach, the court, the opposing team and the scoreboard.
I talked about it with Liv. I asked if having a nice locker room was something I should be upset about missing out on. She told me she couldn’t imagine not having a proper locker room.
She spoke about how the varsity locker room became a safe, sacred space before and after home games. It was comforting to have a room away from the coach, so the captains could talk to the team or teammates individually.
Last month, Liv showed me Mamaroneck High’s girls locker room and varsity locker room. I was in awe.
Mamaroneck High School girls varsity locker room.
They get clean working showers. They make name tags for their cubbies. They take their sneakers and knee pads off together. They get designated spots for their bags, and coat hangers for their windbreakers.
They get a television for film sessions. They get a mini-fridge for drinks and snacks. They get a whiteboard to plan plays and drills.
My varsity team and I should’ve gotten all those things too. The boys at Staples get all those things, and more.
I thought about how messed up the situation is here, and how nobody ever talks about it. But many people joke about it.
Much of the time, the person making the joke was a female athlete herself. I myself have made jokes and sarcastic comments about our laughable locker room, as Staples hangs a banner of our “US News & World Report” highest ranking above one of the main entrances.
Staples football and boys lacrosse locker room. In the winter, it becomes the wrestling practice room. (All photos/Siobhan Jebb)
Nothing changes if nothing changes. I changed my anger and jealousy into motivation and fuel.
I want to make a difference, since it looked like no one else will. If I can help create a new, appropriate and equal locker room for female athletes at Staples High School, I will feel accomplished.
I don’t want my beloved underclass teammates I have grown to know and adore to feel like they don’t matter, or aren’t worth the same facilities and spaces the boys are. I just hope my story has a happy ending.
(To submit a “Student Speaks” — or for questions about this feature — email 06880blog@gmail.com. We will work with students to help craft their story. Anonymity, if requested, is assured.)
Siobhan, thank you for writing this piece! I was horrified to hear about the discrepancies and shocked to see those photos. you know who knew that there was a discrepancy and disparity between those locker rooms, the athletic director the coaches, and probably the parents who heard it from their kids, how anything wasn’t done for years and years is an embarrassment. As girls get shipped off to fields off the campus , they don’t have practice fields to the same standards etc, the story is an old one. many of you know about the women’s soccer team for the US having substandard, transportation, turf everything even though they brought in tons more money to the league than the men’s team. Demand your equality, and sue them if you don’t get it!
Janine: I also applaud Siobhan for helping bring about change and, like you, was astonished to learn about and see the tremendous disparity in locker room facilities.
The interesting thing is, I suspect that this disparity came about well after Title IX because our boys’ locker rooms at Staples were about as bare bones as it gets in the 1968-71 era that Dan and I used them.
My recollection is that there was even a shared (between the boys and girls) indoor bare-bones practice space on the level where the locker rooms were (although it’s possible my memory is off about that. Dan, I’m thinking of that space where we played sockey—where Lev broke his collarbone in a pick-up sockey game).
The big disparity back then was in the number of varsity sports offered to boys and girls at Staples as there were roughly a dozen varsity sports for boys and about half of that number for girls.
Isn’t this the truth Janine !
Well done Siobhan, for telling it like it is.
I admire you for having the courage to do so in a town that hates apple carts getting rocked.
I’m not one bit surprised at the state of affairs.
Too many people just ok with the status quo, for an easy life.
Fair play to you for highlighting this travesty.
I’m so surprised by this. After enduring the first rebuild of Staples and the addition of the Field House my entire 4 years of attending Staples, there was no locker room space for the girls teams? I seem to recall there being some kind of girls locker room before the rebuild. Even with the addition of the pool, there’s no space for the girls teams? Even after the Next round of construction long after my classes’ graduation? I was under the impression the girls athletics were important back when I attended. Your pictures are very revealing, and I am surprised no one pointed this out sooner.
Wow! Let’s see how Sarullo, Scarice and the BoE try to talk themselves out of this inequity. What a disaster.
Along with others there has been a push in motion for a year now to get staples to a proper level of safety and success across all of our facilities. Yes the girls locker rooms are horrific, however the boys is not much better. Stafford and VJ inherited something way outdated and in this town, between the coley mold situation, long lots mess, and ridiculous garden fighting, we have as a town taken our eye off the ball. we only have one high school and the parents of this town with the Incredible coaches and booster clubs and captains and players we have had great success. The outdoor terrible Porto bathrooms at the fields are just as ridiculous as the single porto by our award-winning field hockey team. Guess the girls locker room may be worst of it all, But it’s all terrible. This is definitely not about pointing fingers. This is about how do we get our town to move forward and prepare our high school for the next decade. This goes for the school auditorium too with our incredible arts program. Whether we figure out a public private solution or not, let’s not look backwards at why it is like this, but let’s fix it.
You’re dealing with incompetence! These people are incompetent or they really don’t care. Bridgeport wouldn’t put up with this nonsense!
I had to read this post twice to see what, or if, I was missing something! So the girls have to put up with this as the Superintendent got a nice big salary raise, which was a ridiculous decision! He should have declined the raise and said, “ Take the money and fix up the girls’ locker room instead.” Why hasn’t he done something about this? The buck stops with the Superintendent! Get it fixed!
Wow, this is incredibly unfair and an outrageously bad look for a progressive town, or any town for that matter! This deserves to be a high priority to be corrected. Westport has the resources to fix this. Good for Siobhan for writing this article.
This is shocking. How is it that Siobhan Jebb is the first person to call this out in all of these years? The number of staff that have seen the condition of this room and not elevated this matter and advocated for our female athletes is totally disturbing and disappointing. While it sounds like all the locker rooms need an upgrade, we should not even be mentioning others if it slows down fixing this situation immediately. The inequity here is totally unacceptable.
It seems to me there are a lot of issues of inequality in the athletic department at Staples. I hear about preference for practice times being given to male teams. I have heard about boys tennis teams having different rules than girls. What is going on ?
I would like to add that all girls team captains need to address this issue with the board of Ed asap! Everyone needs to attend the next school board meeting and complain!
Students, I’m backing you up here in a serious way.
Why are you all shocked (if you are) is my first question to the Town?
If you see the writing on the wall, you don’t talk about how you want to get it off, or who the best person to do it is. You get to work like the coaches tell you on the field, Directors on the stage and people counting on you in life. Our children count on us.
I was embarrassed to stand in front of the Staples Players in that room, for a second time I add, and hold back the proper rap I wanted to give on the knuckles of this Town for its bad decisions.
Ms. Jebb, I personally apologize for my own ignorance about your experience as an athlete in Westport. I believe some blame this on the “Sports Industrial Complex” and I would say I’m in that camp as it relates to remodeling the space. My hope is your courage to speak will only continue to help future girls in athletics getting equity. Your peers that look up to you are using your words right now to make us all aware.
The other problem here is management. I would advise that we take a hard look at outside vendors including colliers if they are part of our property management. I can say personally that I have found problems in our oversight and attention to simple detail.
I have a splendid idea: They should ask the tech crew for Staples Players to do a physical inspection of the building and give notes. They can see deferred maintenance easily as they’ve been staring at it for years on their stage making it magically look better than it is, at great cost and possible risk, for years. 6 months of which I just learned was very visible as it was lowered onto the stage.
Stop watching the wall, start scrubbing.
WOW! This really effin frosts me. My two kids (boy and girl) played sports at Staples but unfortunately my daughter never brought this to my attention or (as most of Westport knows) I would have been extremely vocal about the nonsense. I can’t even recount the number of frivolous and unnecessary expenditures I’ve seen and fought over my 30 years in this town, like the $60,000 for picnic tables in the Staples courtyard or the recent uproar over the “S” awards (I argued both should just have been made in the Staples shop classes, but no). Or the millions of COVID relief funds spent rebuilding what is effectively a private jetty, when EMS needed new ambulances. This BS predates Scarice & co. but they’ve definitely kept up the tradition. The original school czar Landon and now Scarice (we had one other who left suddenly under strange circumstances but actually did something good, the SRO in Staples) and co. all make really good livings off Westport residents, amongst the highest salaries in the state, and this basic stuff is neglected? Shame on them and shame on the sycophant BOE. This is not a Title 9 issue, this is basic human decency issue. We’ll spend millions on Scarice-caused employment litigation, hundreds of millions on new schools or cell phone pouches but leave our school infrastructure to rot slowly. Here’s the reason Colleytown eventually had to be closed for mold remediation, lack of facilities maintenance. So Westport schools, one of the top schools in the country shows our young women athletes every day that they don’t matter and they should just soldier on and shut up. I’m just so proud. Disgusting. Excuse me, I need my blood pressure meds!
One of the reasons I am a reluctant adult swimmer at the Staples pool is the disgusting showers and women’s locker room! Not to mention the limited space for rec swimming on any given evening…..
EXACTLY! What about our female swimmers and divers/ TOTALY NEGLECTED!!!
In addition to this glaring “internal” inequality, also look outside to the fields our girls actually play on. Why are none of our girls entitled to lighted playing fields like the boys have? Please, Westport, make lighting Jinny Parker (the on-site field hockey and glax field) a priority before lights on any other athletic field in town. And while we are at it, look at the Staples boy’s baseball field and then get in your car and drive all the way nearly to Wakeman Town Farm, where our girls play softball, and compare the two. Westport, we can do better for our female athletes.
This is unacceptable.
Thank you, Siobhan, for shining a light on this. In 2025, the disparity between the girls’ and boys’ locker room facilities at Staples High School isn’t just outdated, it’s indefensible. What message are we sending our daughters? And equally, what message are we sending our sons about whose comfort and dignity matters more?
As a parent and a design professional, I’d gladly contribute my expertise toward a thoughtful, modern redesign—but this isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about equity. We need to raise our voices, hold the BOE and town leadership accountable, and insist that equal facilities for all students are not negotiable.
Shame on everyone in the administration, teachers, coaches and staff. It’s 2025- Really?? The inequity here is unacceptable. These lockers need to be completely gutted and redone, stat. (And yes- it’s obvious the whole school needs a complete overhaul- but this issue can’t wait.)
Siobhan your writing is incredible. You are making the difference. Well done! I’m proud to have my children at Staples when I see both alumni and current students willing to step up and speak out.
And to all the Staples Girls and any/all students who had to walk these halls throughout their years with this nonsense in their midst- I’m in awe of your strength. I’m also deeply sorry that this was allowed to continue by people whose job it is to notice and make a priority to fix it. Instead, nothing happened. And worse, it seems that some seemed to think nothing needed to happen. That this was somehow, “Okay.”
It’s not okay – and it’s time to make it right.
Just four weeks ago, voters had a chance to toss out BOE members who didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. But that’s not what happened.
They could have elected someone who pointed out this facilities failure during the campaign. They could have elected someone who sees through the administration’s attempt to spin special education in Westport as a shining success for every family. They could have elected someone who considers school employees valuable partners instead of disposable commodities.
But nah. Voters just hopped on the stationary bike of Westport politics again and briefly pedaled. And now they’re shocked—absolutely, positively shocked—that the view hasn’t changed.
Lots of pearl clutching today.
None of this is new. And yet the same people keep getting re elected.
The kids know, just ask them.
The ‘anti ball fields’, ‘why do we have to fund schools?’, ‘not everyone moves here for the schools’ crowd must be grinding their teeth over this post.
A few years back during the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball championship the gross disparity in facilities and amenities between the two made the news. In one story they showed photos of the workout areas; the men had state of the art weight equipment and other top shelf gear whereas the women had very little and what they had was mostly cast off junk. Once it went public the NCAA was humiliated into making improvements for the women. It’s pretty pathetic in 2025 that we still have this sort of second class infrastructure for women’s athletics.
Dan, thank you for publishing Siobhan’s letter. I’m just confused because you mentioned that she originally shared these thoughts a year ago when she was a senior at Staples. Where was the original letter published? Did anyone respond to her concerns?
She wrote it for a senior English class project. It was not published.
I am the proud mother of Siobhan Jebb. I remember when she wrote this for her school project I suggested she send it to Dan Woog for it to get the attention it deserved. At the time she had 2 separate one on one meetings with the AD and wanted to see what transpired before she went to 06880 . He gave her vague replies but said he would look into it which he obviously never did . I wanted her to go with an adult but she wanted to pursue on her own . I am so glad you were able to see her work that she did for her English class and let the town know of the inequity. I don’t know if this additional info is helpful .. Hard to believe she met with him almost 2 years ago but am grateful her voice and article is being elevated now !
The locker room situation is the most glaring example, but further to what Adam and others have said, the state of our facilities overall is a black mark on our otherwise exceptional town and school system. Whether that’s on school officials, town administrators, or a combination of both, the impression is of a group that invested in facilities two decades ago or more and then stopped, and has not spent any time in nearby towns to see just how glaring the difference is.
Years after moving off of Loeffler because of the state of the field literally nothing has been done to improve it, and our state championship boys soccer team now hosts visitors on a bench shelter with holes all over it and that appears like it hasn’t been cleaned since it was purchased. Not only does it lack toilets, there’s not a single water fountain in that entire complex, which serves both school and community sports. The swim teams purchased their own new scoreboard and upgraded starting blocks, but the former sat unused for a season before it could be installed, while the coach had to ask his own handyman to come in and install the latter in order to have them ready for the first meet.
Last night, picking kids up from the pool, I watched an army of out of town vendors pushing dollies and dragging tables all over the newly-installed multi-sport surface in the field house. Hopefully guidance was given or measures were put in place to minimize damage, but it made me wonder who’s ultimately in charge.
Which is to say, it’s not just investment, but maintenance and care as well. See: Coleytown, Long Lots, our auditorium, etc. While we can all criticize those that vocally and aggressively oppose new major capital investments, they aren’t wrong when they question the lack of upkeep and maintenance that led to those needs, as well as whether the new projects will be treated the same way.