Reply #114: "the story gave me the impression "

[Trillo]

I think that is something that I got from it too, once I'd found and read the last page. With all the lack-of-reporting and frequent obvious bias by the corporate media, the stories of government propaganda that (oops!) seems to find its way home, etc., to assume this story is reflective of the truth (maybe it is) of an actual lawsuit is a real leap of faith. Anyone got a link to the actual court filing?

I do believe there's a possibility that a rationale such as time of month or another is likely to be used. But does that rise to a standard of "more attention is given to their requests" than boys seems a reasonable question that may indicate some other a patterned phenomenon of favoritism. If that is explored in court, then the idea I expressed in a prior post where girls are better communicators (possibly because of brain physiology) and hence more suited to certain types of abstract classroom work, whereas boys might be better suited to practical applications (think shop type learning) would seem to be reasonable avenues of inquiry. There may also be an economic (in a greater societal aspect) factor: in prior generations of a manufacturing economy boys may have been favored because of such a need for practical application laborers, whereas in a service economy, girls may be favored because of their communication skills. The easy way out of this perceived impression of favoritism is to allow both boys and girls to go to the bathroom without needing special passes, but if one wishes to argue physiological need as a rationale for special treatment, then there may be the above mentioned (greater female communication skills) or other issues such as have been mentioned by others in this thread, i.e., lack of testosterone, and therefore girls may be better at following rules (which are communicated and are hence "abstract" or that may be matters of selection and past survival in a Darwinian sense) without any tendency toward rebelliousness. I think I'd also be curious as to what processes the school has instituted to insure the girls are in fact going for a pad change, or if sometimes some of them are clandestinely using that rationale for another purpose such as perfume application or even an impromptu break from class, or some other non-approved rationale not based upon physiological need, as actually practiced by each female student (trust, but verify).

I'm unconvinced that said perception of favoritism is "hollow". Perhaps the gender-based hallway-pass disparity needs to be countered with some other offset, such as that mentioned by the quoted school administrator, or another, perhaps gender separated learning and/or gender specific curriculums. Edited to add, perhaps even gender specific tests.