Skirting A Dress Code Crisis

In a recent case, a federal court in North Carolina struck down a charter school's dress code requiring girls to wear skirts under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In that case, the North Carolina Charter Day School's student dress code required female students to dress in "knee-length or longer jumpers, skirts or skorts," but prohibited girls from wearing pants or shorts. The dress code required male students to wear pants or knee-length shorts with a belt. Violations of the dress code resulted in student discipline ranging from a call home to expulsion (although no student had ever been expelled for dress code infractions). The School argued that the dress code supported the School's mission to promote "traditional values" and that the skirt requirement encouraged "chivalry."