The family of a 17-year-old transgender Harrison Central High School senior is suing in federal court after school district officials told her she will have to wear male attire to her graduation Saturday or will not be allowed to participate in the occasion.
“On May 9, 2023—less than two weeks before graduation day, Defendants informed Plaintiff L.B. that she could not attend or participate in her high school graduation ceremony while wearing a dress and heeled shoes,” says a complaint the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on Thursday.
“Defendants based this instruction on the HCHS gender-based dress code policy for graduation, which provides that girls must wear a white dress and dress shoes and that boys must wear a white button-down shirt, black dress pants, black dress shoes, and a tie or bowtie,” the complaint continues.
“Defendants instructed that L.B. must dress in accordance with her sex assigned at birth—in other words, that L.B. must dress in accordance with the stereotypical male standards, even though she entered high school as a girl and has lived every aspect of her high school career as a girl.
The complaint lists the Harrison County School District, Harrison County School Board, Harrison County School District Superintendent Mitchell King, and Harrison Central High School Principal Kelly Fuller as defendants. The plaintiffs accuse them of violating L.B.’s rights to equal protection under the 14th Amendment, her rights under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and her right to freedom of expression under the 1st Amendment.
In the complaint, the ACLU says L.B. “has worn dresses, skirts, and other traditionally feminine clothing items without issue or repercussion, including during in-person classes, school-sponsored events and programs, and extracurricular activities” during the past four years of high school.
“Defendants’ sudden decision to prohibit L.B. from wearing dresses and heeled shoes now, during the final and perhaps most important event of her high school career, serves no legitimate interest or justification,” the document says.
The complaint says L.B. purchased a white formal
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