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Monday, May 22, 2023

This Is Just Mean... (update)

A transgender girl misses her high school graduation after Mississippi judge denies emergency plea to permit her to go in a dress and heels


Updated 9:47 AM EDT, Sun May 21, 2023





CNN
 — 
Students attend their commencement ceremony
 Harrison Central High School in Gulfport,
 Mississippi, on Saturday, May 20.
A Mississippi federal judge denied a motion Friday, filed by the family of a transgender high school student requesting she be allowed to wear a dress and heels under her robe at her Gulfport high school graduation.

The 17-year-old, identified in court documents by her initials “L.B.,” did not attend her graduation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi.

L.B. and her parents, Samantha Brown and Henry Brown, filed the federal lawsuit Thursday demanding Harrison County School District allow the teen to wear what she wishes during Saturday’s graduation ceremony from Harrison Central High School.

Attorneys with the ACLU of Mississippi are representing the family.

The Browns cited a violation of their child’s civil rights, accusing the school district of discrimination on the basis of sex and gender and violating the teen’s First Amendment rights, according to the complaint.

The teen had picked out a dress and heels to wear with the traditional cap and gown in accordance with the school’s dress code for female students, according to a media release from the ACLU.

ACLU spokesperson Gillian Branstetter told CNN in an email:

“Our client is being shamed and humiliated for explicitly discriminatory reasons, and her family is being denied a once-in-a-lifetime milestone in their daughter’s life. No one should be forced to miss their graduation simply because of who they are.”

The Harrison County School District’s policy on graduation states: “Students are expected to wear dress shoes, dress clothes (dresses or dressy pant-suit for girls and dress pants, shirt, and tie for the boys).” The policy does not mention dress code rules for LGBTQ students or specify students must dress according to their sex assigned at birth.

“The Board further finds and determines that a high school graduation ceremony is a sacred and inspirational ritual which is intended to be surrounded with decorum of dignity, grace, solemnity, reverence, pomp and circumstance,” the school policy states, according to court documents. “Students whose attire does not meet the minimum dress requirements may not be allowed to participate in the graduation exercises.”

A commencement participation agreement is included within the court documents. It shows L.B. and her mother signed the document on March 14, 2023, agreeing to follow conditions required for participating in the graduation ceremony, the court documents show.

“My graduation is supposed to be a moment of pride and celebration and school officials want to turn it into a moment of humiliation and shame,” L.B. said in the release. “The clothing I’ve chosen is fully appropriate for the ceremony and the superintendent’s objections to it are entirely unfair to myself, my family, and all transgender students like me. I have the right to celebrate my graduation as who I am, not who anyone else wants me to be.”

The student has been openly transgender since she began attending the school as a freshman, according to the complaint, and her identity has been known to her classmates, teachers and administrators.

Mitchell King, the superintendent of Harrison County School District, testified in court documents the district relies on birth certificates to record whether students are male or female.

The complaint describes a phone conversation between Samantha Brown and King, in which King says L.B. “is still a boy,” therefore “he needs to wear pants, socks, and shoes, like a boy.”

The complaint also notes L.B. attended the school’s prom last year wearing a formal dress and high-heeled shoes, without any issues or repercussions.

CNN has reached out to the Harrison County School District and Harrison Central High School for comment.

4 comments:

  1. Bigots gonna bigot. It's so frustrating to see the needless cruelty from adults directed towards children and young people. Does it make them feel big? How utterly sad a life they must have.

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    Replies
    1. This matter as well as blatant rascism should be labeled as 'State Sanctioned (not sponsored) Terrorism

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  2. Hypocrites!!..these are the same people that believe in freedom, people’s rights, gun rights and on and on and on. But we are going to tell you what you can and can’t wear!...unbelievable!!

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  3. I wonder if all the graduates and their parents had to sign an acknowledgement of the dress code. It is obviously this was not going to be some high school prank as she has been living as a young woman for four years and attended the prom in a gown. It seems some administrator has a problem, not the student and parents. I hope she pursues damages.

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