Hayden v. Greensburg Community School Corp.

Dist. Ct. erred in granting judgment on stipulated facts to defendant-school district in action seeking relief under Title IX and equal protection clause, where plaintiff-boy high school basketball player challenged defendant’s policy that required boy basketball players to cut their hair to certain length, while said policy contained no such requirement for girl basketball players. While Dist. Ct. properly rejected plaintiff’s substantive due process claim that alleged that plaintiff had fundamental right to wear his hair at any length and style of his choosing where Ct. found that any such right was subject to rational basis review, instant policy violated equal protection clause and Title IX since policy discriminated against plaintiff on basis of his sex. Moreover, while defendant could have different grooming policies for boys and girls, defendant failed to present evidence of what grooming standards applied to girls so as to demonstrate that girls were expected to conform to comparable, though not identical, grooming standards. Fact that hair-length policy applied to only two out of several boys sports did not require different result. (Dissent filed.)