On Jan. 12, Superintendent Dr. Rick Doll received a letter from the Kansas American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Legal Director Doug Bonney and Cooperating Attorney Amy Katz regarding the introduction of single-gender English 9 classes at Free State this semester. The ACLU learned of the new class format from an online Free Press article from Jan. 5, which can be read here.

In the letter, the ACLU requested that Free State discontinue single-gender classes. On Jan. 14, counselors began altering the schedules of those enrolled in the single-gender classes to place them in coeducational English classes.

The ACLU cited Title IX, United States v. Virginia and guidelines issued by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights as reasons for the request.

Additionally, the ACLU noted that, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), any school receiving funding from the USDA “shall not provide any course or otherwise carry out any of its education program or activity separately on the basis of sex, or require or refuse participation therein by any of its students on such basis.”

The ACLU further cited that a meta-analysis of over 1.6 million students conducted by the American Psychological Association “showed that, when proper controls are used, there are no benefits to single-sex education.”

Below is a photocopy of the ACLU’s letter to Doll, provided by Bonney to the Free Press.