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We’ve just filed a brief in a federal court of appeals in our challenge to a North Carolina public charter school’s discriminatory dress code requiring girls to wear skirts to school. The school justified the rule as promoting “chivalry” & “mutual respect between boys and girls.”
The school's founder defines “chivalry” as the notion that girls are “fragile vessels” needing boys’ protection & care. The Skirts Requirement aims to teach students, starting in Kindergarten, that boys & girls are different, & that girls should be treated more gently than boys.
Our clients, who are students speaking up against this discriminatory dress code, are anything but “fragile.” They object to these gender stereotypes, and want the chance to learn and play as freely as boys. https://www.aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/womens-rights-education/my-school-requires-all-girls-wear-skirts-im-fighting-my
Last year, we secured a federal court ruling that the Skirts Requirement violated the Equal Protection Clause. Our recently filed brief in the Fourth Circuit defends that ruling. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/girls-just-want-to-wear-pants-sometimes-leggings_n_5c9e82d7e4b00ba6327d13fe
Our brief also argues that the requirement violates Title IX, the landmark law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, a claim we lost below--incredibly. If this type of different treatment, *intended* to promote sex stereotypes, doesn't violate Title IX, what would?
Our argument just got a big boost from the recent SCOTUS ruling in Bostock, which reaffirmed that firing someone based on gender stereotypes violates the law, even if the stereotypes apply equally to men as well as women. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/trump-transgender-workplace-protections
Such stereotypes about traditional gender roles have no place in our education system, whether in charters or traditional public schools. This appeal takes us a step closer to striking down this discriminatory dress code once & for all.
Briefing here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/peltier-v-charter-day-school
Briefing here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/peltier-v-charter-day-school
