A public school in Louisiana – Delhi Charter School – is blatantly violating federal law and the US Constitution by treating female students differently from male students. In its Student Pregnancy Policy, it outlines the following – “If an administrator or teacher suspects a student is pregnant, a parent conference will be held. The school reserves the right to require any female student to take a pregnancy test to confirm whether or not the suspected student is in fact pregnant… If the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes on the campus of Delhi Charter School.”
Moreover, any student who refuses to submit to a pregnancy test shall be treated as a pregnant student and will be directed for home study. If home study option is not acceptable to the student, the student will be counseled to seek other educational opportunities.
Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972 clearly mandates that schools cannot exclude any student from an education program or activity, “including any class or extracurricular activity, on the basis of such student’s pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery therefrom.”
According to ACLU, approximately 70 percent of teenage girls who give birth leave schools and illegal discrimination is a major contributing factor to this high dropout rate.