Kramer Levin, ACLU Reach Settlement with Mississippi School District Over Student’s Senior Yearbook Photo

On December 7, 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union announced that it had reached a settlement with the Copiah County School District in Mississippi in a dispute over the exclusion of student Ceara Sturgis’ photo from the senior portrait section of the yearbook because she posed in a tuxedo rather than the drape that the school district required female students to wear. In September 2011, a federal judge in the District of Mississippi rejected the school district’s motion to dismiss Ms. Sturgis’ sex discrimination lawsuit challenging the gender-based dress requirement, which was filed on her behalf by the ACLU. The settlement has the Copiah County School District adopting a policy that will require all students to wear a cap and gown for their senior portraits, rather than requiring boys to wear tuxedos and girls to wear drapes.

The Kramer Levin team that worked with the ACLU consisted of Litigation partner Norman C. Simon and associates Joshua Glick, Lee C. Strock and Jason M. Moff.