At issue at Lakeview High School in St. Clair Shores is a ninth-grade physical-education syllabus that reportedly conditions makeup opportunities for swim classes missed because of menstruation on a parent disclosing the student’s menstrual-cycle length, according to CBS News Detroit. The reported requirement applies to female students, prompting parents to question whether cycle information is necessary to document an absence.
Bryan Shishakly told CBS News Detroit that his daughter, a straight-A student, received a C in physical education during her freshman year after declining to provide the requested information needed to make up missed swim days. He said the practice unfairly imposed a condition on girls that did not apply in the same way to boys, according to the station’s report.
Parents seek a districtwide response
After reviewing his daughter’s syllabus, Andy Amsdill raised the issue with Principal Scott Kapla and Superintendent Karl Paulson, CBS News Detroit reported. Amsdill said school leaders assured him that his daughter could avoid the requirement, but he argued that an individual exception would not resolve the broader policy question. The report said district officials planned to meet with him, and Amsdill intended to bring the matter to a school board meeting.
Questions about Title IX
Menstrual-product access in Michigan
Michigan has addressed the cost of menstrual products through tax policy: Public Acts 108 and 109 of 2021 exempted feminine hygiene products from the state’s sales and use taxes effective Feb. 3, 2022, according to the Michigan Department of Treasury. Michigan’s 2021 Period Poverty Awareness Week proclamation cited national studies reporting that one in four women and girls struggle to purchase menstrual supplies each month and one in five miss work or school as a result, according to the Office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Those figures are national estimates cited by the state proclamation, not a Michigan-specific measure of Lakeview students’ experiences.
The dispute followed Title IX regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Education that took effect Aug. 1, 2024. Those rules extended sex-discrimination protections in federally funded elementary and secondary education to pregnancy and related medical conditions, including menstruation, according to the department’s regulations. But the department’s Office for Civil Rights now says a federal district court vacated the 2024 regulations on Jan. 9, 2025, and that they are not effective in any jurisdiction, according to its current notice.
What the rules establish
The 2024 Title IX regulations addressed menstruation as a related medical condition and covered participation in federally funded education, but the Office for Civil Rights says those provisions are no longer effective after the court’s Jan. 9, 2025, vacatur. That legal update does not by itself resolve whether Lakeview’s reported makeup condition complies with Title IX.
The Michigan information cited in this article concerns access to menstrual products, not school attendance or physical-education makeup requirements; it does not establish a uniform statewide district policy governing menstrual disclosures or activity accommodations. The Florida example likewise involved a proposed sports-eligibility form, not Lakeview’s reported classroom rule.
Legal scholars cited in research published through the University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository have argued that a school requirement imposing special makeup conditions or health disclosures on female students because of menstruation could create a sex-based barrier covered by Title IX. That analysis describes equal educational access as requiring schools to avoid unnecessary sex-based burdens; it does not establish that Lakeview’s practice violates the law.
A Florida example has also fueled concerns about menstrual information in schools. In February 2023, the Florida High School Athletic Association voted to remove mandatory menstrual-history questions from student-athlete medical forms after criticism focused on privacy and possible Title IX implications, according to the ERA Coalition.
The reported Lakeview makeup rule remains in place for now. Amsdill and Shishakly are seeking its removal for all students rather than relying on case-by-case arrangements, according to the reported accounts.
