Upon further review, a girls’ locker room is really a girls locker room

Originally in class on Thursday, I agreed that girls locker room would need a possessive. It turns out, and this is tricky, it does not. Here's the key part of the Associated Press Stylebook entry for possessives:

“DESCRIPTIVE PHRASES: Do not add an apostrophe to a word ending in s when it is used primarily in a descriptive sense: citizens band radio, a Cincinnati Reds infielder, a teachers college, a Teamsters request, a writers guide.

Memory Aid: The apostrophe usually is not used if for or by rather than of would be appropriate in the longer form: a radio band for citizens, a college for teachers, a guide for writers, a request by the Teamsters.

An ’s is required, however, when a term involves a plural word that does not end in s: a children’s hospital, a people’s republic, the Young Men’s Christian Association."

Another common example of this rule is farmers market, which provides the basis for a good example from this area of an exception. For instance, an apostrophe is used in Flint Farmers’ Market.

So, although versions of stories from The Oakland Press and The Flint Journal used an apostrophe, that doesn't make them definitive or correct.

Accordingly, John McKay now has one fewer point.