Parents at a suburban Detroit high school are demanding answers after learning that girls in gym class must have a parent report how long their menstrual cycles last, or watch their grade drop.
The rule is in a physical education syllabus at Lakeview High School in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. It says girls who miss swimming because of their periods can make up the days only with a note from home stating the length of the menstrual cycles.
"Female students will be given the opportunity to make up days, which are missed only because of their menstrual cycle. A written/email note from a parent stating the length of the menstrual duration is required, so the student can make up the days," the syllabus reads, according to the Guardian. "Students will not just sit out. Each day that is not made up will be considered a non-participation day and place the student on the grade reduction scale."
Andy Amsdill, whose daughter attends Lakeview, said he was stunned when he read it. "The teacher wants us to either send a note or an email with the suspected length of the cycle which, by itself, is ridiculous," he told WXYZ Detroit.
After Amsdill went public, other parents reached out to say the rule had already hurt their children, he told CBS News.
One of them, Bryan Shishakly, said his daughter faced the same requirement as a freshman last year and refused to share the information. It cost her. "She's a straight-A student, and she ended up with a C in gym, and I don't know how fair that is since it's only going to apply to the girls at the school," Shishakly told CBS.
The objections come down to three things parents keep raising.
The first is privacy. The rule asks families to hand a teacher details about a teenager's body in order to protect her grade, and a student who declines, as Shishakly's daughter did, pays for it in points.
The second is that it applies to girls alone. By its own wording, the disclosure requirement and the grade penalty attached to it reach only female students. Amsdill has questioned whether that squares with Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in schools receiving federal money. Its reach in K-12 schools goes well beyond sports, including how class rules and dress codes are applied to one sex and not the other, as we explained in Title IX is about far more than girls' sports.
The third is that the rule asks for a number many families cannot give. Menstrual irregularities affect an estimated 14% to 25% of women of childbearing age, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which describes a normal cycle as anywhere from 21 to 35 days. A note promising a set number of days is, for many parents, a guess, and the syllabus attaches a grade to it.
The district has not defended the policy publicly. Lakeview Public Schools Superintendent Karl D. Paulson said in a statement that the district "recently became aware of a parent's concern relative to certain class expectations" and "immediately sought to schedule a meeting with the parent to engage in a conversation about the concern."
"We look forward to meeting with the parent in the coming days and working collaboratively with that objective. The Lakeview school district remains fully committed to educational excellence and best practices in all it does," the statement said.
It did not say whether the rule will be dropped, whether other gym classes at the school use the same language, or whether students already marked down under it will have their grades reviewed.
The district's own guide to sexual harassment, posted on its website, lists "comments about students' bodies or how they look or act" among examples of "unwanted sexual remarks or behaviors."
Lakeview High School enrolls about 1,300 students, roughly half of them girls, according to federal enrollment data.
Sources
The Guardian: Outcry as Michigan high school asks girls to share details of menstrual cycles
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: How many women are affected by menstrual irregularities?
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: What are menstrual irregularities?
Enrollment figures from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data.
