Last week, high school administrators suspended a transgender student, Staceyy Holidayy, for wearing a shirt that violates the girls dress code, despite allegedly forbidding her from also using facilities designated for female students.

As reported, Staceyy purposely violated the dress code by wearing a backless top to bring attention to the administration’s inconsistent treatment of her gender identity. She told reporters, “I don’t know how they can suspend me because I broke rules for girls when I can’t use the girls restroom or locker room.”

The administration disputes Staceyy’s claims, telling reporters it was agreed that Staceyy would use the nurses office for the restroom and changing. They thought it would be “safer” for her to do so rather than use the regular facilities.

The administration also assured reporters that it adheres to California’s legal requirements in place to protect transgender students. However, Staceyy alleges that she was not given a choice in the matter. Thus, the arrangement may violate the law’s requirement that a student “be permitted to … use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”

Signed into California law just last August, the School Success and Opportunity Act, or AB1266, requires a school to allow a student choice in gendered assignments like restrooms, classes, and sports teams. Despite the need to protect LGBTQ youth from institutionalized bullying, the law is under threat as anti-LGBTQ groups successfully organize for its repeal.

For transgender students, ascertaining equal protection and relief via constitutional means is not a guarantee and indeed, such avenues can take years and can be immensely expensive. With affirmative legislation like California’s law, however, a student may be afforded protection and more effective means for recourse. Indeed, in Staceyy’s case, the administration is quick to discuss its compliance with AB1266 in its accommodations for Staceyy.

As far as the suspension goes, however, AB1266 has little to say. Some commentators have lauded the administration’s recognition of Staceyy’s gender by enforcing the girls’ dress code against her (though one wonders whether it is generally so strictly enforced). But regardless of gender identity, the fact that any student is suspended for two days over an arbitrary dress code violation leaves little room for applause.  

[image of student courtesy Towelroad via]

Earlier this month, an 18 year-old transgender student fought and won a battle to wear a tuxedo in his yearbook photo, despite his school’s initial reaction that the photograph would not conform with “community standards.”

As reported, the South Texas school refused to allow high school senior Jeydon Loredo to wear his tuxedo in his senior photograph because “they were a conservative school” and as a consequence,  his “photograph would be included only if he wore feminine attire, such as a drape or blouse.” As discussed in Dressing Constitutionally, yearbook photos have frequently been a locus for regulating students’ gender expressions, but the administration’s reasons often do not justify their actions because of First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause protections.

Joining Jeydon and his family, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote the school district officials a demand letter, describing how the refusal to include the photograph “violates the student’s freedom of expression, which is protected by the First Amendment. It also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which protects the student from discrimination, as well as Title IX, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex by any education program receiving federal money. Refusing to publish the photograph would even violate the school district’s own anti-discrimination policies.” The Center then threatened a suit against the District if they did not make a decision to include the photograph of Jeydon in the tuxedo within eight days.

Shortly after receiving the Center’s demand letter, the District came to a resolution that it would allow the photo, saying the decision was “in the best interest of the student and the school and the community.”

But as the Center said in a recent Press Release, the District allowing the photograph is much larger than just the best interest of Jeydon and the community — it sends the message “that transgender students should be recognized as important members of their communities rather than ostracized and subjected to discrimination.”

[image via]

School officials have suspended an eighth grader at Anderson County Junior/Senior High School after he refused to remove his Vera Bradley “purse.” Skyler Davis, 13, was reportedly called to the Assistant Principal’s office and told to either remove the bag or face suspension. Davis refused, and the school sent him home. 

As we have seen in other situations, timing and shifting rationales are  suspicious factors in this dress code enforcement. According to Davis’s outraged mother, Leslie Willis, he had been wearing the bag since August without issue. Meanwhile, Anderson County School District Superintendent Don Blome explained the rule: “all students, whether male or female, are prevented from having bags, purses, satchels and backpacks in the core classrooms like English and math.” No gender discrimination here! All bags are banned equally. Davis’s mother, meanwhile, insists that the student handbook contains no mention of bags or purses, noting: “Skyler has been going to school since August with that same Very Bradley bag on, hasn’t taken it off. What is the problem?”

Perhaps the problem had nothing to do with the bag. With his mother’s support, Skyler returned to school, wearing the bag, and was again suspended. This time, school administrators reportedly told him he had never been suspended for wearing the bag, but in fact for “foul language.” Willis says she was told that “the suspension wouldn’t be lifted until Skyler stops wearing the purse.” 

A few constitutional issues are raised here: gender discrimination (girls can wear purses; boys cannot) and freedom of expression (Davis claims to express himself through his bag). The school might counter by showing a rule of equal application to female and male students and, as explained in Dressing Constitutionally, “[attire] bearing words or symbols is much more likely to meet the expressive threshold necessary to invoke First Amendment protections.” Davis, however, might note how enforcement of a dress code often serves as a proxy for enforcement of expressive and gender norms. And a hopeful sign: the support of his mother and many others, including Vera Bradley. Perhaps sensing opportunity, the company has offered Davis words of support — and products.

[image via]