No Girls Allowed: School Under Fire for All-Boys ‘Red Tails’ Field Trip

February 13th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

There was already plenty of controversy surrounding the lack of black women in the George Lucas Tuskegee Airmen film “Red Tails,” but now a school district in Dallas is catching heat, and possibly, a case for sending about 5,700 fifth grade boys on a field trip to see the movie, and excluding girls.

According to a teacher, the trip was a part of black history month, and the film was chosen because it was something that boys would be interested in, as the movie is about historically significant African American men. Of the choice to exclude girls, Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander, said:

“There is only so much available space at the movie theater, so the decision was made for boys to attend the movie. Girls stayed at school but principals were given the option to show them ‘Akeelah and the Bee.’”

Title IX funds were used to cover the cost of the nearly $60,000 field trip, which included $32,000 for the cost of movie tickets and an additional $25,000 for bus rentals, not to mention paying substitute teachers to instruct the girls who were still in the classroom. Title I money is used for educating low-income students, but because Title IX prohibits schools that get federal money from gender-based discrimination, outside groups are questioning whether the provision has been violated.

The American Association of University Women told the Dallas Morning News that the field trip was a case of “separate but unequal,’’ and a statement by the Dallas district’s board of trustees saying that they thought boys would enjoy the combat movie more than the girls doesn’t do much to to nullify that stance.

I actually think sending black boys to see the film as a way to instill pride as African American men would’ve been a great idea, but the fact that the district didn’t even think that deeply and made the trip more of a “boys play with guns, girls play with barbies” situation, makes it hard to justify the exclusion of female students. What year is it, 1950?

What do you think about this “Red Tails” field trip? Should the school district be held accountable for excluding girls from seeing the film?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • Candacey Doris

    I don’t think they should have made the decision to just sen boys. They should have chosen two movies, one they thought would appeal to boys and one that would be goo for girls and let them choose. The big problem is that they let the girls at school to watch an old film that they may have seen already rather than allowing them to go on a trip too.

  • Lorenzo

    Could have been handled differently, I can see how it would be construed as a 1950 ish attitude. It probablly should have been approached as an african male pride outing instead of being gender specific regarding the boys with trucks and girls with dolls mentality.I think those decision makers that were involved realize the error of thier ways and they will handle something like this differently in the future. In other words it should not reach epic proportion.

  • LaLaLaMeansILoveYou

    Wow. People get offended at everything nowadays. Get over it already.

    Would they also be offended if the school sent all of the girls on a field trip to an American Girl outlet (dolls)?? Libby-Lus (dress up/make up store for little girls)?? Disney Princesses on Ice?

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