Girls are required to wear dresses. Boys are required to wear pants.
That statement may sound like it’s coming from 1950, but some school districts across the United States have tried to enforce antiquated dress codes telling students exactly how they should dress for their high school graduations. They require girls to wear dresses or skirts and boys to wear pants. This is more than just a throwback to a bygone era; it’s an unlawful gender-based distinction.
If it seems wrong to you for public schools to enforce outdated gender norms, you’re right. While public schools may regulate what students wear by requiring formal attire at celebratory events such as graduation, they may not draw distinctions between male and female students that are based on outdated notions of what constitutes appropriate female attire. A dress code that relies on gender stereotypes violates both the Constitution and laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender and sex in public schools.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions that receive federal funding. Courts have consistently recognized that discriminating against a person for failing to conform to gender norms is illegal sex stereotyping. Additionally, a requirement that all female students wear dresses to graduation amounts to sex discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Such a requirement is based on an old-fashioned and overbroad generalization of how female students should look and act. Discriminatory dress codes can interfere with a student’s opportunity to participate in important school celebrations, and no student should have to choose between participating in a graduation ceremony and wearing attire that makes her deeply uncomfortable.
So what can you do if your school is trying to enforce such an outdated dress code at your graduation? We’ve put together a sample letter to help you to end discriminatory dress codes at your school. You can edit this letter to fit your situation and use it to inform your principal or superintendent that the dress code they’re imposing is unreasonable, and more importantly, unlawful.
If your school won’t change its policy even after you’ve presented them with the letter, please reach out to us at the ACLU of North Dakota. If you’re successful in getting your school to change a bad dress code policy, let us know that too!
Good luck and happy graduation!