ACLU files lawsuit to end single-sex education, ‘these programs are illegal’
The ACLU has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, saying the single-gender schools and classrooms are discriminatory, noting Hillsborough County Florida in their claim, reports TBO.com in a Wednesday article.
All male and all female schools are bad, says the ACLU photo/public domain
In the complaint filed Tuesday with the the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, the ACLU is is calling for federal and state investigations into the school district.
“The Hillsborough School District has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to implement a hidden curriculum promoting the theory that boys and girls are so fundamentally different that they need to be taught using radically different teaching methods,” ACLU Women’s Rights Project staff attorney Galen Sherwin said in a news release. “The truth is that every student learns differently, and our public schools should not be in the business of making crude judgments about children’s educational needs based solely on whether they are a boy or a girl.”
The group notes different instructions for the girls and the boys, encouraging teachers of “boys” to “be louder” while those teaching girls, to “be calm and less critical,” notes the TBO report.
Hillsborough Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said Tuesday evening that she had not gotten to review the complaint but noted the district’s single-gender schools and classrooms are optional: Parents can choose to put their children there but aren’t forced to.
“In each instance, the schools simply offer that opportunity to parents, as well as a traditional classroom experience,” she said, during a school board meeting. “When we established single-gender classrooms and schools, we did so carefully. We are confident our programs will pass muster.”
The complaint came the day after Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a piece of legislation that encourages school districts to offer more single-gender programs.
Although these schools already are permitted under Florida law, House Bill 313 sets up guidelines districts must adhere to when opening them. It also includes new requirements for teacher training.
The ACLU has long battled “sex stereotypes” as part of their “Teach Kids Not Stereotypes” campaign. In 2013, they wrote that “more and more educators and education policymakers are realizing that their students don’t fit neatly into little pink-and-blue/girls-and-boys boxes.”
“… these programs are illegal, and even if they weren’t illegal are they really what we want for our kids? Schools separating students by sex and designing curriculum around gender stereotypes convey the message – intentionally or not – that there are particular ways “normal” boys or girls ought to think or behave.”
