The Supreme Court declined Monday to review a decision by a lower court that barred a private charter school from requiring female students to wear skirts.
In 2019, several female students filed a lawsuit with the ACLU against the Charter Day School in North Carolina, which requires students to wear a uniform, with pants for male students and skirts for female students. A federal court ruled against the school, prohibiting them from enforcing the rule, and the school then appealed to the Supreme Court to uphold the school’s right to enforce a dress code.
However, the justices declined to review the case, according to the Monday order list.
“Today’s announcement is a victory for the thousands of students who attend public charter schools in North Carolina and for the 3.6 million students like them nationwide,” Ria Tabacco Mar, Director of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, said in a press release. “Girls at public charter schools have the same constitutional rights as their peers at other public schools – including the freedom to wear pants. We will continue to fight for all girls to learn in safe and equal schools.”
BREAKING: Today, the Supreme Court upheld the federal court’s decision in our case against a North Carolina public charter school.
Public charter schools must respect the constitutional rights of students, and the school’s “skirts only” rule for girls violated those rights.
— ACLU (@ACLU) June 26, 2023
The school’s founder, Baker Mitchell, has said the dress code requirements are to promote “chivalry,” according to the Associated Press, but the ACLU argued in the lawsuit that the female students “claim the skirts requirement sends a message that their comfort and freedom to engage in physical activity are less important than those of their male classmates.” The school is currently allowing female students to wear pants in accordance with the federal court’s previous ruling.
The ACLU and Charter Day School did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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