District changes policy over same-sex class.A 13-year-old scuba diver, firefighter cadet and kung fu kung fu Pinyin gongfu Chinese martial art that is simultaneously a spiritual and a physical discipline. It has been practiced at least since the Zhou dynasty (1111–255 BC). student who filed a lawsuit against the Livingston Parish School Board in New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded in a first-of-its-kind case over its plans to segregate seg·re·gate v. seg·re·gat·ed, seg·re·gat·ing, seg·re·gates v.tr. 1. To separate or isolate from others or from a main body or group. See Synonyms at isolate. 2. her middle school by sex won. The American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. filed the lawsuit in August in federal court for Michelle Selden, who started eighth grade at Southside Junior High School, and her parents, Darren and Rhonda Selden. The district dropped plans to segregate the middle schools by sex only a day after the suit was filed. It was ACLU's first lawsuit over the issue. Previous cases have been resolved without going to court, says Emily J. Martin, deputy director of the ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. Women's Rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and Project. The suit contended the program was based on discriminatory stereotypes. "Psychological research demonstrates that on average, boys and girls boys and girls mercurialisannua. are psychologically more alike than different," the suit stated. Supporters of separate classes argued that boys and girls learn differently, and separating them can help both do better. Critics compared it to "separate but equal" segregation-era classrooms. Martin says the program at Southside would have been illegal even if federal rules proposed to make it easier for school districts to set up same-sex schools and classes were already in effect. Those rules would require any coeducational co·ed·u·ca·tion n. The system of education in which both men and women attend the same institution or classes. co·ed public school which offers classes segregated by sex to also offer coed classes for all "non-vocational" subjects. The student was in the position of not attending any of the parish's other junior high schools, according to the lawsuit. But her parents never asked for a transfer, stated school Superintendent Randy Pope. "We will allow transfers between other schools, as we always have, for academic reasons." According to the lawsuit and a statement filed by Darren Selden, the family had learned about the plans at a parents' meeting in May. At that meeting, Principal Alan Joe Murphy said that "the decision to provide only single-sex classes had already been made and that the school board backed this decision," Selden wrote. Selden wrote, "If I had wanted my daughter to go to a single-sex school, I would have sent her to a private school. I believe that if my daughter is forced to attend sex-segregated classes that are taught based on stereotypes about how girls learn, that she may very well be harmed by this discriminatory environment." |
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