Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that requiring female students to wear skirts in an attempt to promote “traditional values” violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard ruled that the North Carolina school in question was engaging in sex discrimination because of its ban on allowing female students to wear pants and shorts.
"The skirts requirement causes the girls to suffer a burden the boys do not, simply because they are female," Judge Howard explained in his ruling.
What year is it? 2019. OK, now that we’ve affirmed that fact, let’s dig into the details.
Female students at Charter Day School in Leland, North Carolina could only wear “skorts,” “skirts,” or “jumpers” according to the school’s policy. They were explicitly barred from the options that male students could choose from. Oh. And this school serves grades kindergarten through 8th. So, you know, literal children.
And of course, this doesn’t even begin to cover the issues with gender identity. For example, a child who identifies as non-binary. Or a child who identifies as a trans man. Or a trans woman. Or so on. But let’s get back to the case at hand.
Working with the American Civil Liberties Union, parents filed the lawsuit in 2016. The case, which was brought under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, argued that the dress code harmed and penalized female students because it constricted their movements during playtimes. The suit also argued that because of these uniforms, the female students were colder than their male peers during the winter.
Note: Charter Day is a nonprofit and receives money from the federal government. This is a big part of the reason Title XI, which bans sex discrimination from schools that receive federal funds, applies.
In an email exchange with a parent, the school’ s founder, Baker Mitchell, argued that the dress code "demonstrably contributed to producing a focused learning environment with respectful, dignified student relationships." This was back in 2015.
Don’t worry. Mitchell’s email explanation gets even weirder because…. It brings in Columbine.
Yes, really.
He wrote:
"As you may recall, the tumult of the 1990s was capped off by the Columbine shootings April 20,1999 in which two students killed thirteen classmates and injured twenty-four others – fourteen of whom were female. The Trustees, parents and other community supporters were determined to preserve chivalry and respect among young women and men in this school of choice….
There was felt to be a need to restore, and then preserve, traditional regard for peers.”
Nothing like victim-blaming, shaming literal children, and using a massacre to further your “traditional values” agenda. Disgusting.