Oh man. Are you as sick of reading these stories as I am of writing them?
This story -- about Doug Anglin, a 17-year-old high school student from Milton, Mass., who has filed a federal civil rights complaint against his school alleging gender discrimination -- has been making the e-mail rounds at Salon for the past few days and was very nicely dissected by Jessica at Feministing earlier this afternoon.
Here's the long and short of it: According to the Boston Globe, Anglin complains that "girls face fewer restrictions from teachers, like being able to wander the hallways without passes, and are rewarded for abiding by the rules, while boys' more rebellious ways are punished." He also singles out "homework, which sometimes includes points for decorating a notebook," as a girlie task for which boys are naturally handicapped. "The system is designed to the disadvantage of males," Anglin tells the Globe. "From the elementary level, they establish a philosophy that if you sit down, follow orders, and listen to what they say, you'll do well and get good grades. Men naturally rebel against this."
Sounds like someone's been reading his Christina Hoff Sommers. Or at least someone's dad has.
Indeed, the complaint was formally written by Anglin's father, Gerry, a lawyer in Boston. What does the elder Anglin, Esq., hope to see come of the suit? Apparently, he'd like to see the school "compensate boys for the discrimination by boosting their grades retroactively." "If you are a victim of discrimination in the workplace, what do they do? They give you more money or they give you a promotion," he tells the Globe. "Most of these kids want to go to college, so these records are important." Doug Anglin's current GPA is 2.88.
Now, there's a real lesson for our boys: If you can't deal with actually studying your way into a good college, sue your way there.
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