New York City elite high school cancels women-only swim class, forcing Muslim girls to co-ed to meet requirement or risk not graduating
- A mandatory one-semester swimming lesson at the public preparatory high school is required to graduate
- The girls’ class was cancelled, forcing Muslim girls to attend the mixed class
- Many Muslim teens are hitting back by refusing to attend the co-ed activity, claiming they would rather miss class than betray their faith
Muslim girls at New York City’s Stuyvesant High School protest after the school canceled an all-female swimming class, forcing them to take a co-ed option.
Manhattan’s elite public school requires students to take a semester of swimming lessons to graduate. It previously offered an all-female version, but demand for the class conflicted with the schedule, leading the school to cancel the option.
Now Muslim girls at the school have no choice but to take the co-ed class and risk their modesty to meet the requirement.
Many of the affected teens hit back by refusing to attend the co-ed activity, saying they would rather risk failure than betray their faith.
“I know girls who just can’t make it right now,” a sophomore told me The New York Post.
Stuyvesant High School, located on Chambers Street in midtown Manhattan, requires all students to take a swimming class by the end of their sophomore year to meet the school’s graduation requirement
The community center pool at Stuyvesant High School
Brian Moran (pictured) is assistant director of safety and security and physical education at Stuyvesant High School in New York
The all-girls swimming classes at the prestigious public college preparatory high school were no longer an option when classes resumed last fall following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The popularity of the lessons caused a programming block.
The school’s deputy director of physical education, Brian Moran, told the student newspaper The Spectator that the girls’ swim gym was removed because “it caused a big problem, especially with programming.”
He said a large number of their female students had applied for gym class and the extra classes required would clash with the schedule of science labs being held every other day.
He explained that a teacher and trained lifeguard should be present during swimming lessons.
Moran said the young Muslim women can wear a “burkini” – a full-body swimsuit that shows only the face, hands and feet. But some women don’t feel comfortable wearing the tight-fitting suits in front of the opposite sex.
A Department of Education insider revealed to the Post that Stuyvesant may be violating a state ordinance. The A-630 Chancellor’s Regulation requires schools to allow “accommodation of religious practices and customs” where possible.
A 16-year-old 10th grade Muslim student said, “Religious swimwear sticks to your body when you leave the pool, so it’s still just uncomfortable.”
Seung Yu (pictured) is the principal of New York’s Stuyvesant High School
There are 3,300 students attending the public college preparatory high school
Tasnim Chowdhury, a senior at Stuyvesant, took part in the girls’ swimming class when she was a sophomore, and hopes the school will reinstate it for her younger female peers.
“I don’t like swimming with guys because I’m Muslim and it’s very difficult for us,” Chowdhury told The Post.
“I can’t believe the school would change it because it’s been a fundamental part of Stuy, and now all of a sudden it’s changed.”
It is unclear how many students at the school are Muslim.
Freshman Sarzil Chowdhury, 14, who took part in the mixed swimming class and wore a burqa-style bathing suit, said she “didn’t like it much.”
“It was a little awkward at first because I wasn’t used to being so close to guys,” she said.
Student Joey Chen has demanded from principal Seung C. Yu that all-girls classes be reinstated, calling the decision to eliminate them a “blatant disregard for the faith of a large percentage of students” in a piece for the student newspaper.
“(Students) are left helpless to choose between their faith or their Stuyvesant degree,” she wrote.