Louisiana’s Delhi Charter School Promises To Stop Kicking Out Pregnant Teens

Delhi, LA – The Delhi Charter School in rural Louisiana recently came under attack after it was discovered that the school was kicking out pregnant students, requiring them to be taught at home, away from the influence their actions might have on other students.

On Wednesday evening the school’s board chairman announced that the Delhi Charter school would reverse its course following the American Civil Liberties Union’s threat to file a lawsuit.

According to chairman Albert Christman the schools policy managed to get “everybody up in a roar.”

If students were suspected of being pregnant the schools administration would ask them to take a pregnancy test. If a pregnancy test came back positive or if a student refused to take the test they were dismissed from classes and forced into homeschooling.

Firing back at the school the ACLU noted that Title IX of the 1972 federal education law explicitly gives equal opportunities to both sexes, since the male partner was not being removed from the school the female partner should also be allowed to stay argued lawmakers.

In a June report regarding discrimination against high school level girls the National Women’s Law Center noted:

“Despite enormous advances for women and girls in education since 1972, schools across the country continue to bar pregnant and parenting students from activities, kick them out of school, pressure them to attend alternative programs, and penalize them for pregnancy-related absences.”

In the meantime lawmakers in Louisiana are now investigating whether such discriminatory practices should be allowed at the state level. One glaring question is whether private and religious schools receiving tuition vouchers should be forced to follow the same guidelines as state owned institutions.

The schools policy dates back to 2006 with a “handful” of students being dismissed from classes.