Discriminatory Dress Codes in North Carolina School up for Supreme Court Review
Written by Gisela Bunch | Edited by Jackie Wang
The Supreme Court asked the Biden administration on January 9 to weigh in on a possible consideration to take up a past ruling from 2019 regarding the dress code in a North Carolina charter school, where girls are required to dress in either skirts or dresses. Should the Supreme Court agree to hear this case, they would be bringing dress codes, which have continuously been cited as discriminatory over the years by experts, to a larger audience that could be key in encouraging more action against these codes of conduct.
In a statement to the 4th Circuit Court, the North Carolina charter school, Charter Day School, cited its dress code as “designed to foster discipline and mutual respect between boys and girls.” In another statement, the owner of the private company which manages the school, Mitchell Baker, describes the dress code as one where women are “regarded as a fragile vessel that men are supposed to take care of.” In an email to a parent concerned about the dress code, Baker even suggested that dress codes were a possible prevention effort for school shootings.
In an interview with the Huffpost, Erika Booth, parent to a female student attending CDS involved in the suit, stated, “I think it teaches girls they’re second-class citizens. They take second place to boys. And it’s not right.”
Parents are not the only ones who feel this way. Bella Booth, daughter of Erika Booth, describes how the dress code heavily upset her as a young student, and she couldn’t understand why she was forced to dress in skirts, while her brother could wear pants.
Another student, Keely Burks, an 8th grader at CDS, describes how she felt unable to partake in the same activities, such as cartwheeling, as her male counterparts at recess, “I feel like I can’t because I’m wearing a skirt.”
Dress codes can be extremely harmful for self-esteem. A focus on female students’ bodies in a learning environment implies that women’s physicality is prioritized over academic values. Furthermore, it creates a stark division between the standards placed on boys and girls, which can affect a developing mind into adulthood.
CDS argued that their choice to implement this dress code remains an individual right they have as a private school, describing themselves as a “private entity” which evades the 14th Amendment. However, CDS receives 95% of their funding from public sources, leading others to argue that the school essentially functions as a public school and therefore should be treated as such. Additionally, North Carolina’s statutory code describes charter schools as “public schools” and employees as “public school employees.”
On June 14, 2022, nearly two years after the case was introduced, the 4th Circuit Court sided with the female students and their parents, saying the dress code “blatantly perpetuates harmful gender stereotypes.” Judge Malcolm J. Howard, who delivered a verdict which claimed the dress code was unconstitutional, said the dress code, “causes girls to suffer a burden the boys do not, simply because they are female.”
According to Aaron Streett, a lawyer for CDS, the Supreme Court’s decision to ask a solicitor from the Biden administration for input, as opposed to rejecting the appeal, is a “positive sign” that suggests the school might procure a beneficial overturning from the Supreme Court. In the meantime, a dress code case which recognizes sexist underpinnings of the traditional practice brought to the Supreme Court could have reverberating effects in the United States whether or not the ruling is on the side of CDS.
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- Raymond, N. (2023, January 9). Supreme Court seeks U.S. government view on charter school’s skirt requirement. Reuters. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.reuters.com/legal/supreme-court-seeks-us-government-view-charter-schools-skirt-requirement-2023-01-09/
- Supreme Court of the United States. (2022, September 12). Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-238/237630/20220912123715969_No.%20-__%20CDS%20Petition%20and%20Appendix.pdf
