Law & Courts

A Charter School Made Girls Wear Skirts to Promote ‘Chivalry.’ An Appeals Court Says No

By Mark Walsh — June 15, 2022 4 min read
Scales of justice and Gavel on wooden table and Lawyer or Judge working with agreement in Courtroom, Justice and Law concept.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A federal appeals court has ruled that a North Carolina charter school organized around traditional values and “chivalry” violated the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause with its requirement that girls wear skirts.

The court further ruled that public school dress codes that discriminate on the basis of sex fall under the federal Title IX law, and it sent the case back to a trial court for further proceedings on that issue.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., comes in a case that could also prove significant for the legal status of charter schools as public or government actors as well as on the legality of dress codes.

The 101 pages of opinions include lively exchanges among the judges over chivalry and other values of the Middle Ages, the educational innovations and legal status of charter schools, and gender stereotypes in education.

The schools “stereotyped rationale for the skirts requirement—that girls are ‘fragile’ and require protection by boys—is both offensive and archaic,” wrote Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, in a concurrence joined by another judge.

Writing one of two dissents in the case, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III said the majority decision “will drape a pall of orthodoxy over charter schools and shift educational choice and diversity into reverse.”

“To a great many people, dress codes represent an ideal of chivalry that is not patronizing to women, but appreciative and respectful of them,” said Wilkinson, whose opinion was joined by two other judges.

The majority said chivalry in the “age of knighthood” was grimmer than Wilkinson suggests, citing historical research suggesting that men could assault their spouses with impunity during that age.

“Chivalry may not have been a bed of roses for those forced to lie in it,” Keenan wrote in the majority opinion in Peltier v. Charter Day School Inc.

The sharp opinions come in an important decision on charter schools and gender bias

The long-running case involves a Charter Day School, a K-8 school in Leland, N.C., which teaches a classical curriculum and bars girls from wearing pants or shorts, instead requiring skirts or jumpers.

Some parents challenged the policy under the equal-protection clause and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bars discrimination based on sex in federally funded schools.

A federal district judge ruled in 2019 that the charter holder operated under state authority when it incorporated its disparate dress code into its disciplinary rules. The judge held that the dress code violated the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause. But the judge held that Title IX did not apply to dress codes.

A three-judge 4th Circuit panel last year held that neither the charter school nor the private manager that ran it were state actors and thus the policy could not be challenged on constitutional grounds. But the panel said the district judge was wrong on Title IX and that dress codes did come under the statute.

The full 4th Circuit set aside that panel ruling to review the district court decision anew. In its June 14 ruling, the court held 10-6 that the charter school was a state actor and that the skirt policy violated the equal-protection clause. (That same lineup agreed the private charter manager was not a state actor.)

The majority said the school’s skirt policy was based on “impermissible gender stereotypes.”

“CDS has imposed the skirts requirement with the express purpose of telegraphing to children that girls are ‘fragile,’ require protection by boys, and warrant different treatment than male students, stereotypes with potentially devastating consequences for young girls,” Keenan wrote for the majority.

The six judges who dissented on that issue argued that the charter school was not a state actor under North Carolina law.

“My worry is that the majority’s reasoning transforms all charter schools in North Carolina, and likely all charter schools in the other states that form our circuit, into state actors” and will stifle educational innovation, said Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.

The court ruled 13-3 that Title IX encompasses sex discrimination in school dress codes. The majority was not persuaded by the fact that the U.S. Department of Education, in 1982, had rescinded a regulation prohibiting discrimination against any person based on “rules of appearance.”

“Based on the plain language and structure of the statute, we conclude that Title IX unambiguously encompasses sex-based dress codes promulgated by covered entities,” the majority said. (Because the statute was unambiguous, the court said, it was not deferring to the Education Department’s 1982 regulatory change.)

Wilkinson, dissenting on the Title IX issue, noted that the Education Department said in 1982 that appearance codes were an issue “for local determination.”

“Surely CDS did not unambiguously give up its right to adopt a traditional sex-specific dress code merely by accepting a dollar of federal funds,” Wilkinson said.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts Appeals Court Backs Fla. Law Barring Transgender Teacher's Use of Her Pronouns
A federal court upheld Florida’s ban on K-12 teachers using pronouns that differ from their sex assigned at birth when speaking to students.
4 min read
A new billboard welcoming visitors to "Florida: The Sunshine 'Don't Say Gay or Trans' State," is seen on April 21, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. Florida's state government and LGBTQ+ advocates have settled a lawsuit challenging a law that bars teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.
A billboard welcoming visitors to "Florida: The Sunshine 'Don't Say Gay or Trans' State," is seen on April 21, 2022, in Orlando. The billboard was a commentary by an LGBTQ+ rights group on a controversial law backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis regarding the teaching of certain topics. A federal appeals court on July 2 refused to block a related law, one barring teachers from using pronouns or titles that don't match their sex assigned at birth.
John Raoux/AP
Law & Courts 16 States Sue Trump Admin. to Restore Mental Health Grants for Schools
Democratic state officials are challenging the Education Department ending mental health funding, which had passed with bipartisan support.
3 min read
Audience members listen as President Joe Biden speaks during an event to celebrate the passage of the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," a law meant to reduce gun violence, on the South Lawn of the White House, July 11, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
Audience members listen as then-President Joe Biden speaks during an event to celebrate the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act on the South Lawn of the White House on July 11, 2022. The legislation provided funding for two school mental health grants that the Trump administration terminated in late April. Sixteen states are now suing to restore the funding.
Evan Vucci/AP
Law & Courts What a Supreme Court Ruling Means for All the Education Lawsuits Against Trump
The decision could change the course of education-related cases that have been trickling through the courts since Trump returned to office.
8 min read
The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen May 21, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen May 21, 2025 in Washington. On Friday, the court limited the ability of lower courts to issue universal injunctions that put a policy on hold nationwide. The ruling could affect how a number of cases challenging Trump administration policies proceed.
Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images
Law & Courts Supreme Court Declines to Hear Cases on Teacher, Student Political Speech
The justices refused to take up the cases of a teacher fired over social media posts and a student who alleged harassment over his MAGA hat.
5 min read
Make America Great Again hats are sold alongside other Trump memorabilia for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Make America Great Again hats are sold alongside other Trump memorabilia for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2025, declined to hear two cases involving political speech in public schools, including one centered on a student who alleges he was bullied and harassed by classmates and teachers after wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
Apolline Guillerot-Malick/Sipa via AP Images