Lakeview High gym syllabus asks girls for menstrual cycle length to make up swim days
A ninth-grade gym class syllabus at Lakeview High School in St. Clair Shores requires female students to disclose the length of their menstrual cycles in order to make up swim days they miss because of their periods.
The syllabus reads, "A written note from a parent stating the length of their daughter's menstrual cycle is required - if the student misses swim days because of their period - in order for those missed days to be made up."
Andy Amsdill's daughter brought the syllabus home from her ninth-grade gym class a few weeks ago.
"That is nobody's business but hers, her doctors, and whoever she feels like sharing that with," Amsdill told CBS Detroit, saying the school and its administration have no claim to the information.
Amsdill contacted the principal and the superintendent to ask why students are being asked for something that personal. He says the school told him his daughter wouldn't have to comply, and that isn't enough.
"It's not just about my daughter, it's about every other girl in that school who is going to have to go through that," Amsdill said.
Other parents have reached out to him since, telling him they're glad he raised it. One of them, Bryan Shishakly, says his daughter — now a sophomore at Lakeview — ran into the same requirement in freshman gym last year, and that it hurt her grade.
"My response was like, 'If they ask, you have no obligation to tell them,' and it did affect her grade," Shishakly said. "She's a straight-A student, and she ended up with a C in gym, and I don't know how fair that is since it's only going to apply to the girls at the school."
Shishakly, who attended Lakeview himself, says he regrets not raising it a year ago.
"She had the same freshman gym class last year, same policy, and was frustrated with it then. I was frustrated, but yeah, Andy [Amsdill] had the guts to stand up to the board and try and really make a change," he said.
Amsdill says he is now considering hiring a lawyer over potential Title IX concerns. Title IX is the federal law barring sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funding.
Civil rights attorney Jon Marko, who reviewed the syllabus language for CBS Detroit, says parents have reason to be unsettled.
"It's creepy, I'd be creeped out. I'm not going to tell the Phys Ed teacher my daughter's menstrual cycle," Marko said. He says that as a parent and as a lawyer he finds the requirement concerning, and that it could potentially violate Title IX.
The school said in a statement Tuesday that it had recently learned of a parent's concern about "certain class expectations." The statement read, in part, "Given our commitment to partnering with parents to address any issue that might arise, we immediately sought to schedule a meeting with the parent to engage in a conversation about the concern."
Amsdill says that meeting with the superintendent is set for 7:15 a.m. Friday.
It's not clear whether the requirement appears in other gym syllabuses at the school, or whether the district plans to strike it.
