SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
May, 13 2014, 03:15pm EDT
Contact:
ACLU of Florida Media Office
(786) 363-2737
ACLU Files Federal Complaint Challenging Single-Sex Class Program Rooted in Stereotypes at Florida's Second Largest School District
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights calling for a federal investigation into Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida, stating that the district's single-sex classrooms program violates Title IX.
TAMPA, Florida
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights calling for a federal investigation into Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida, stating that the district's single-sex classrooms program violates Title IX. The complaint, with evidence primarily from information discovered by ACLU requests under Florida's public records law, states that the district's program is based on stereotypes and discredited notions about how boys and girls learn and develop, and that the District has misled parents about how sex-segregated classrooms were working in the district.
Hillsborough County Public Schools is the second largest school district in Florida and one of the ten largest school districts in the United States. Since 2009, the District has provided sex-segregated classes in at least sixteen schools - including one high school and fifteen elementary schools - as well as operating two exclusively single-sex middle schools. The complaint states that the justification for such a program was based on sex stereotypes and discredited notions about "biological differences in boys and girls that affect learning."
"The Hillsborough School District has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to implement a hidden curriculum promoting the theory that boys and girls are so fundamentally different that they need to be taught using radically different teaching methods," said Galen Sherwin, Senior Staff Attorney of the ACLU Women's Rights Project. "The truth is that every student learns differently, and our public schools should not be in the business of making crude judgments about children's educational needs based solely on whether they are a boy or a girl."
In an accompanying letter to the Florida Department of Education, the ACLU argues that the need for both federal intervention and a full state investigation on single-sex education is all the more urgent in light of the signing by Governor Rick Scott of a bill, HB 313, which requires training for teachers of "gender specific" classrooms in all Florida school districts. The governor signed the bill on May 12, and it goes into effect on July 1st.
The ACLU's complaint states that the Hillsborough School District spent almost $100,000 on outside consultants to promote the idea that boys' and girls' brains are inherently different, and that teachers of children as young as kindergarteners were trained in teaching methods based on sex stereotypes in sessions with names like "Busy Boys, Little Ladies." The ACLU argues that both the federal and state education departments should issue guidelines to ensure that the training mandated under HB 313 does not rest on sex stereotypes.
The information in the complaint was gleaned from public records requests filed as part of the ACLU's "Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes" initiative to end the practices of separating boys and girls in public schools based on discredited science about boys' and girls' purportedly different brains and learning styles. ACLU's investigation has shown that many such programs, including numerous programs in the state of Florida, are based on the ideas of Dr. Leonard Sax and other proponents of single-sex education, whose discredited theories on the supposed differences between boys' and girls' brains are rooted in archaic stereotypes. For example, Sax says that girls do badly under stress, so they should not be given time limits on a test; and that boys who like to read, do not enjoy contact sports and do not have a lot of close male friends should be firmly disciplined, required to spend time with "normal males" and made to play sports.
The Complaint provides evidence that in Hillsborough County, impermissible gender stereotypes were incorporated into almost every aspect of the educational environment. For example, the District encouraged teachers in boys' classrooms to "be louder" and "have high expectations," while teachers in girls' classrooms were expected to be "calmer" and "less critical." In one instance, boys had an electronics day, where they could bring in all their electronics and play them if they behaved, while girls did not. In another, the teacher in a girls' classroom gave each girl a dab of perfume on her wrist for doing a task correctly.
"Basing academic school programs solely on students' gender and gender stereotypes is not good for Florida's students, or for Florida's future," stated ACLU of Florida Associate Legal Director Maria Kayanan. "In Hillsborough County, we've seen that thousands of students - girls and boys both - are having their learning experiences limited by academic programs shaped by junk science. Students in Florida classrooms deserve better, and both state and federal law promise them that."
In order to safeguard against sex discrimination, federal law prohibits coeducational schools from implementing single-sex programs unless they meet extremely stringent legal requirements. At a minimum, schools must offer a persuasive justification for the decision to institute single-sex programming, the programs must be completely voluntary, and a substantially equal co-educational alternative must be available.
The complaint, authored by the ACLU of Florida and the ACLU's Women Rights Project, requests that the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights investigate all schools in Hillsborough County Public Schools that have instituted sex-segregated classrooms, order Hillsborough County Public School District to remedy any unlawful conduct, and monitor and secure assurances of compliance with Title IX from all schools within the District. The ACLU further reiterated its request that the Florida Department of Education fulfill its mandate to ensure compliance with state law and conduct its own investigation.
A copy of the complaint is available here: https://aclufl.org/resources/title-ix-complaint-hillsborough-single-sex-classes/
A cover letter sent with the complaint which summarizes the ACLU's findings is available here: https://aclufl.org/resources/hillsborough-schools-usdoe-cover-letter/
The letter to the Florida Department of Education is available here: https://aclufl.org/resources/letter-to-fl-doe-hillsborough-same-sex-classes/
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
'Surveillance Is Not Accountability': Noem Sending DHS Agents in Minnesota Body Cameras
Immigration agents "murdered two people on video since the beginning of the year, and the Trump administration still lied about what happened and tried to justify it," said one critic. "I don't think cameras are the solution."
Feb 02, 2026
As the Hennepin County medical examiner on Monday classified Alex Pretti's death as a homicide, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said members of her department who are on the ground in Minnesota will be issued body-worn cameras—a development that came amid a congressional funding fight and was met with mixed reactions.
President Donald Trump and Noem this year have sent thousands of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents to the Twin Cities, where they have fatally shot Pretti and Renee Good, both US citizens acting as legal observers. Noem announced on social media Monday that she met with the heads of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"Effective immediately we are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis. As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide. We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country. The most transparent administration in American history," the department chief wrote, also thanking the president.
Noem's revealed the move as Congress was in the process of reopening the government after a weekend shutdown. The package would give federal lawmakers until mid-February to sort out a battle over DHS funding. Democrats have fought for policies to rein in the department since ICE officer Jonathan Ross killed Good last month, and demands have mounted since Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez killed Pretti.
Responding to the secretary on social media, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said, "The funding is there, and every officer operating in our communities should be wearing a body camera."
"However, this alone won't be enough for Homeland Security to regain public trust or to ensure full transparency and accountability. Secretary Noem must be removed from office," DeLauro added. There have been growing calls to impeach her.
Pointing to extra money that ICE got in the budget package that congressional Republicans and Trump forced through last summer, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said: "You got $75 billion in the Big Bad Betrayal bill. You've got funding 'available' right now. And... release the Pretti bodycam footage NOW."
Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) also took to social media to call for releasing the bodycam footage from the Pretti shooting and stressed that funding is already available:
As the Associated Press reported:
Homeland Security has said that at least four Customs and Border Protection officers on the scene when Pretti was shot were wearing body cameras. The body camera footage from Pretti's shooting has not been made public.
The department has not responded to repeated questions about whether any of the ICE officers on the scene of the killing of Renee Good earlier in January were wearing the cameras.
Bystander footage of the Minneapolis shootings has circulated widely and fueled global demands for ending Trump's "Operation Metro Surge" in Minnesota as well as arresting and prosecuting the agents who shot and killed both legal observers.
Some Americans and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are also calling to abolish ICE. Author Chantal James declared Monday: "We didn't say bodycams on ICE. Their murders are already on video. We said no more ICE."
Critics of the administration cast doubt on whether adding more bodycams to the mix will reduce violence by DHS. Campaign for New York Health executive director Melanie D'Arrigo said that immigration agents "murdered two people on video since the beginning of the year, and the Trump administration still lied about what happened and tried to justify it. I don't think cameras are the solution."
Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a a policy organization focused on harmful criminal justice and immigration systems, shared an image emphasizing that "surveillance is not accounability" and a fact sheet about body cameras his group put out last month.
"In the wake of the killing of Michael Brown in 2013, policymakers and police departments held up body-worn cameras as the path forward. Editorial boards joined the chorus," the fact sheet states. "Over a decade later, with 80% of large police departments in the US now having acquired body-worn cameras, it's safe to say body-worn cameras have not delivered on their lofty promise."
"The evidence that body-worn cameras reduce use of force is mixed, at best," and "footage ≠ transparency or accountability," the document details. Additionally, "contrary to their stated purpose, body-worn cameras are actually thriving as tools to surveil and prosecute civilians."
Body cameras are surveillance camerasBody cameras are surveillance camerasBody cameras are surveillance camerasBody cameras are surveillance camerasBody cameras are surveillance camerasBody cameras are surveillance cameras
— Evan Greer (@evangreer.bsky.social) February 2, 2026 at 7:03 PM
After a masked federal immigration agent told a legal observer in Maine that she was being put in a database for purported "domestic terrorists," independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported last week that federal agencies are using multiple watchlists to track and categorize US citizens—especially activists, protesters, and other critics of law enforcement.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Minnesota Medical Examiner Rules Alex Pretti's Death a Homicide
Trump administration immigration enforcers shot the 37-year-old nurse multiple times and then allegedly denied him medical care.
Feb 02, 2026
A county medical examiner's office in Minnesota on Monday ruled the death of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse fatally shot last month by Trump administration immigration enforcers in Minneapolis, a homicide.
The Hennepin County medical examiner said that Pretti's cause of death was homicide by multiple gunshot wounds. Homicide is a medical description that does not imply criminal wrongdoing; the Trump administration said last week that it has launched a civil rights probe into the January 24 incident in which agents shot Pretti seconds after disarming him of a legally carried handgun.
On Sunday, ProPublica revealed that US Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer Raymundo Gutierrez shot Pretti, who was reportedly known to federal officials after a previous encounter in which immigration enforcers allegedly broke his rib.
A physician who rushed to the scene of the shooting and tried to save Pretti's life said in a sworn statement that agents denied the victim medical care and instead "appeared to be counting his bullet wounds."
As they did with Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother and poet who was also shot dead by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis last month, President Donald rTrump and some of his senior officials attempted to smear Pretti as a “domestic terrorist”—a move consistent with the administration’s designation of left-wing activism as terrorism.
Last week, US District Court Judge Katherine Menendez—an appointee of former President Joe Biden—rejected a bid by state and local officials in Minnesota to halt Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's name for the ongoing anti-immigrant blitz in the Twin Cities.
This, even as Menendez acknowledged that the operation "has had, and will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking, consequences," and that “there is evidence that ICE and CBP agents have engaged in racial profiling, excessive use of force, and other harmful actions."
Immigrant advocates renewed calls to end ICE and the Trump administration's broader anti-immigrant crackdown in the wake of the Minnesota medical examiner's homicide determination.
Author Chantal James took aim at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's Monday announcement that every officer with her department deployed to Minneapolis will be equipped with a body-worn camera.
"We didn't say bodycams on ICE," she wrote on Bluesky. "Their murders are already on video. We said no more ICE."
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose district includes Minneapolis, said on Bluesky: "Abolish ICE. There’s no reforming it. There’s no compromise. There’s only one way to rein in ICE’s terror campaign. Abolish it."
Keep ReadingShow Less
As Trump Doubles Down on Fossil Fuels, Courts Let Offshore Wind Projects Resume Construction
"The unilateral court victories are evidence of what we've known all along—Donald Trump has it out for offshore wind, but we aren’t giving up without a fight," said a Sierra Club senior adviser.
Feb 02, 2026
While President Donald Trump's administration on Monday again made its commitment to planet-wrecking fossil fuels clear, a Republican-appointed judge in Washington, DC dealt yet another blow to the Department of the Interior's attacks on offshore wind power.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, issued a preliminary injunction allowing the developer of the Sunrise Wind project off New York to resume construction during the court battle over the department's legally dubious move to block this and four other wind farms along the East Coast under the guise of national security concerns.
Lamberth previously issued a similar ruling for Revolution Wind off Rhode Island—which, like Sunrise, is a project of the Danish company Ørsted. Other judges did so for Empire Wind off New York, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off Virginia, and Vineyard Wind off Massachusetts, meaning Monday's decision was the fifth defeat for the administration.
Ørsted said in a Monday statement that the Sunrise "will resume construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority, to deliver affordable, reliable power to the State of New York." The company also pledged to "determine how it may be possible to work with the US administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution."
Welcoming Lamberth's decision as "a big win for New York workers, families, and our future," Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul stressed that "it puts union workers back on the job, keeps billions in private investment in New York, and delivers the clean, reliable power our grid needs, especially as extreme weather becomes more frequent."
Despite the series of defeats, the Big Oil-backed Trump administration intends to keep fighting the projects. As E&E News reported:
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers reiterated in a response Monday that Trump has been clear that "wind energy is the scam of the century."
"The Trump administration has paused the construction of all large-scale offshore wind projects because our number one priority is to put America First and protect the national security of the American people," Rogers said. "The administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue."
The Interior Department said it had no comment at this time due to pending litigation.
Still, advocates for wind energy and other efforts to address the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency are celebrating the courts' consistent rejections of the Trump administration's "abrupt attempt to halt construction on these fully permitted projects," as Hillary Bright, executive director of the pro-wind group Turn Forward, put it Monday.
"Taken together, these five offshore wind projects represent nearly 6 gigawatts of new electricity now under construction along the East Coast, enough power to serve 2.5 million American homes and businesses," she noted. "At a time when electricity demand is rising rapidly and grid reliability is under increasing strain, these projects represent critically needed utility-scale power sources that are making progress toward completion."
"We hope the consistent outcomes in court bode well for the completion of these projects," Bright said. "Energy experts and grid operators alike recognize that offshore wind is a critical reliability resource for densely populated coastal regions, particularly during periods of high demand. Delaying or obstructing these projects only increases the risk of higher costs and greater instability for ratepayers."
"After five rulings and five clear outcomes, it is time to move past litigation-driven uncertainty and allow these projects to finish the job they were approved to do," she argued. "Offshore wind strengthens American energy security, supports domestic manufacturing and construction jobs, and delivers reliable power where it is needed most. We need to leverage this resource, not hold it back."
Sierra Club senior adviser Nancy Pyne similarly said that "the unilateral court victories are evidence of what we've known all along—Donald Trump has it out for offshore wind, but we aren't giving up without a fight. Communities deserve a cleaner, cheaper, healthier future, and offshore wind will help us get there."
"Despite the roadblocks Donald Trump has tried to throw up in an effort to bolster dirty fossil fuels, offshore wind will prevail," she predicted. "We will continue to call for responsible and equitable offshore wind from coast to coast, as we fight for an affordable and reliable clean energy future for all."
Allyson Samuell, a Sierra Club senior campaign representative in the state, highlighted that beyond the climate benefits of the project, "we are glad to see Sunrise Wind's 800 workers, made up largely of local New Yorkers, get back to work."
"Once constructed, Sunrise Wind will supply 600,000 local homes with affordable, reliable, renewable energy—this power is super needed and especially important during extreme cold snaps and winter storms like Storm Fern," Samuell said in the wake of the dangerous weather. "Here in New York, South Fork has proven offshore wind works, now is the time to see Sunrise, and Empire Wind, come online too."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular