OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Forever 21 is one of a handful of stores that allows men and women to try on clothes in the same area.
Now, some shoppers believe it might be time for a change.
This comes after a man was chargedfor allegedly recording a woman and a girl inside a Forever 21 changing room at the Overland Park mall.
“For a place like this, I don't think that's appropriate at all to have men, women and children in the same dressing room at all,” said Jaymee Henderson, who shops at Forever 21.
Scripps station KSHB in Kansas City sat down with an attorney to find out what the laws are when it comes to recording video in a clothing store like this.
Attorney Bernie Rhodes said anything within the store is fair game.
"If I want to walk into a Forever 21 store and put my cell phone in my breast pocket and film my interaction with the sales clerk, that's perfectly legal,” said Rhodes.
But once you get to the dressing room area, the rules change.
"What a store can't do is install a security camera in the bathroom or dressing rooms because there we have what we call an expectation of privacy. The same is true for perverts,” said Rhodes.
Rhodes said a person can record themselves in the dressing room with their own device.
In the Forever 21 dressing rooms, there is a large gap between the floor and the fitting room wall. That’s how prosecutors allege a man took video of a girl and a woman on his cell phone.
A petition on Change.org is calling on the store to separate their dressing rooms by gender, but Rhodes believes that change won’t prevent people from breaking the law.
"It falls upon the individual who is acting illegally, he or she knows what they're doing is wrong. You can make the wall go all the way to the floor and they'll drill a hole in it,” said Rhodes.
He says privacy laws can be violated anywhere, not just in the dressing room at a clothing store.
"Unfortunately, it does happen more often than we'd like to think,” said Rhodes.
KSHB reached out to Forever 21 to find out if they intend to make changes to their fitting rooms, we have not heard back.
