South MS school district is violating transgender student’s civil rights, complaint says

Transgender students are suffering in Harrison County because of the school district’s insistence that they dress according to their “biological sex,” a Harrison Central High student and her mother say in a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

The complaint details the “sex-based, hostile environment” that the 16-year-old and other gay or transgender students face in Harrison County schools.

The school district is violating Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools, through its dress code and harassment of transgender students, the American Civil Liberties Union claims. Under Education Department rules, sex discrimination applies to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The ACLU filed its complaint Wednesday for Gulfport resident Kimberly Hudson on behalf of her daughter, identified as A.H.

The ACLU is asking that the Education Department’s Civil Rights Office look into the school district’s enforcement of the dress code. The office should request that sex-based and other gendered language be eliminated, the complaint says. The district also should adopt policies on responding to allegations of discrimination, and apologize for the harm done to A.H. and other students, the complaint says.

A school district that violates the law, enforced by the Civil Rights Office, can lose its federal funding. The district added dressing by “biological sex” to the regular dress code after insisting that a transgender student abide by her sex at birth for a graduation dress code that dictates what boys and girls wear for the ceremony.

Enforcement of the graduation dress code in 2023 prompted a federal lawsuit from the transgender student’s parents and spate of national publicity. A federal judge ruled the district was within its rights to enforce the dress code.

“I have never seen a dress code like Harrison County’s where they specifically tied it to the sex assigned at birth of a student,” said McKenna Raney-Gray, LGBTQ Justice Project Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Mississippi. “If Harrison County is so invested in discriminating against transgender students that they’re willing to put their federal funding at risk, I think that’s showing their main mission is not to educate students.”

Transgender student humiliated

District employees have discriminated against A.H. because her biological sex at birth was male, the complaint says. It describes humiliations and indignities that she has faced over the years.

As an eighth-grader at West Wortham Elementary & Middle School, she saw no choice but to use the boy’s bathroom even though she found it “humiliating.” As she walked into the boy’s restroom one day, the complaint says, a teacher screamed at her: “What are you doing? Get out of there! You don’t belong in there!”

The complaint says, “This was deeply distressing, embarrassing, and confusing for A.H., who started to cry and did not know where she could go to relieve herself.”

She’s suffered other humiliations over restrooms since then, leading her to limit her intake of food and water while at school.

She’s more recently had problems over wearing a dress for special occasions as a band member, twice being told she would need to change. In March, the complaint says, the band director approved of a black dress that she chose to wear for a regional band concert evaluation in Pearl. An accomplished musician, she had spent months preparing for the concert.

A.H. was delighted when classmates complimented her on her dress. In the hall, she ran into Principal Kelly Fuller, the complaint says, quoting Fuller as saying, “You know you can’t wear that, right?” They went back and forth, but Fuller insisted a boy could not wear a dress or skirt.

A.H. had to call her mother to bring her “boys’ clothes,” a buttoned-down shirt and dress pants.

“Returning to the classroom where her dress had been celebrated by her peers,” the complaint says, “A.H. felt utterly humiliated to be seen in clothing that was inconsistent with her gender identity.”

The complaint also describes homophobic and transphobic slurs aimed at A.H. by an older student and constant “misgendering and deadnaming” by staff. “Deadnaming” occurs when someone is called by the name they were given at birth rather than the name they have chosen to match their gender identity.

ACLU: Dress code unfairly singles out girls

The ACLU contends district employees have unfairly targeted girls, particularly transgender or nongender-conforming girls, for discriminatory dress code enforcement.

The complaint cites the case of a female student, identified as Student A, who is gay and has always dressed in masculine clothing. She wore a tuxedo for her senior portrait in the fall, but the photographer told her that district policy required girls to wear drapes. She would have been uncomfortable in a drape, so she wore her tuxedo jacket for the picture.

Superintendent Mitchell King later said the portrait would not be included in the yearbook, the complaint says, so her mother took out a full-page yearbook ad that featured the photo.

“As of May 8, 2024, Student A has not received a yearbook and remains in suspense about whether her tuxedo portrait will be included in her senior ad,” the complaint says.

High school graduation woes

The complaint also covers the district’s enforcement of its graduation dress code in 2023, detailing the case that wound up in federal court because a transgender student planned to wear a dress to graduation. When a judge sided with the district, the student decided against attending the ceremony.

Another 2023 graduate, Student C, was pulled from the line at the last minute, the complaint says, because she was wearing black pants. She was told that she could remove the pants and walk in her graduation gown but would need white shoes.

The complaint says: “Her mother then pointed out the absurdity of the District’s position, saying ‘So, she could walk in her underwear, but she can’t walk in pants.’ ”

Student C did not walk in her graduation ceremony. Her grandmother, who drove 800 miles for the occasion, said, “‘I don’t understand how this, a moment this important, can be taken away from a child that’s worked 12 years to get here.’”

The Sun Herald will update this story with any response from the School District, which had no advance notice of the complaint.