MS Coast school district forbids trans teen’s dress. Are they violating their own dress code?

A Mississippi teenager set to graduate high school in one day is fighting in federal court Friday afternoon to be able to wear a dress to receive her diploma.

The Harrison Central High School student is transgender and has worn dresses and feminine clothes her entire high school career and has never been cited for dress code violations, a lawsuit filed by the ACLU says.

The 17-year-old has worn dresses to prom and shopped for the perfect white graduation dress with her mother, Samantha Brown.

But things changed when the Harrison County School District superintendent, Mitchell King, called the Harrison Central principal to ask what trans students would be wearing to graduation, the lawsuit says.

The student, identified in the lawsuit as L.B., was told by the principal should would have to wear the boys’ clothing options for graduation as set in the Coast school district’s dress code.

After obtaining attorneys and pleading with the school district to change course to no avail, the girl and her parents will be in U.S. District Court in Gulfport Friday. An emergency injunction was called in the hopes the court will allow L.B. to wear the dress she chose for graduation on Saturday.

History of dress code complaints at Harrison County schools

L.B. has been openly transgender at school for four years. The lawsuit states that the dress codes for graduation and for Harrison Central High’s campus in Gulfport don’t note rules pertaining to gender markers or transgender children.

L.B.’s case, however, isn’t the first time dress code has been called into question by Harrison County parents.

The Harrison County School District is the largest school district on the Mississippi Coast and has made news headlines in the last year about their dress code policies that parents say are sexist, improperly enforced and often stray from the district’s own rules laid out in the student handbooks.

In February 2022, a fifth grade student at West Wortham Elementary & Middle School, was sent to in-school suspension for the day for wearing a hoodie with leggings.

Shiloh Fore, who had never been in trouble at school, was stopped by the principal who said her hoodie was too short. Shiloh’s father, a Biloxi police lieutenant, said his daughter’s sweater “hung down to her freaking knees” when he spoke to the Sun Herald last year.

Ashton Fore, Shiloh’s mother, put a photo on Facebook of Shiloh’s outfit on Facebook that showed her hoodie passed the “fingertip test,” the length (mid thigh) that is deemed acceptable by the dress code. The dress code also states that hoodies worn with leggings must cover the buttocks.

Does Harrison County follow its own school dress code?

Shiloh’s parents also claimed that principal Michael Weaver did not follow West Wortham’s own dress code that states parents would first be called to bring students a change of clothes.

In an email to the Fores, superintendent King apologized for not trying to get Shiloh a change of clothes before sending her to ISS.

On the day Shiloh was punished for her hoodie, she said Weaver was examining outfits of many other students, all of whom were girls.

After the Sun Herald published Shiloh’s story, other parents reached out and spoke about their issues with the school district’s dress code policies.

Like Shiloh, West Wortham fifth grader Ainsley Ballenger also was sent to ISS last year because Weaver said her shirt didn’t pass the “fingertip test.”

When Ainsley’s mom — Kayla Mcgee — confronted Weaver, he told her that the shirt would “ride up a little bit” when she walked. At the time, McGee called the enforcement “sexist.”

“It’s making them grow up to be ashamed of what they are,” the Coast mom told the Sun Herald last year. “And there’s no sense in them having to wear clothes that’s three times bigger than what they are.”

What’s next for Harrison Central trans student

A federal judge will decide if L.B. will be allowed to wear a dress heels to her graduation.

The Sun Herald reached out for comment from the Harrison County School district for comment but did not hear back from them at the time of publication.

Sun Herald reporter Margaret Baker contributed to this report.