NYC high school cancels all-female swim class, forcing Muslim girls to take co-ed option

Muslim girls at New York City's Stuyvesant High School are protesting after the school canceled an all-female swim class, forcing them to take a co-ed option. 

The elite Manhattan public school requires students to take a one semester swim class in order to graduate. It previously offered an all-female version, but demand for the class conflicted with scheduling, leading the school to cancel the option. 

Now, Muslim girls at the school have no option but to take the co-ed class and risk their modesty in order to fulfill the requirement.  

Many of the affected teens are hitting back by refusing to attend the co-ed activity, saying they would rather risk failing than betray their faith. 

 'I know girls who are just failing it right now,' one sophomore told The New York Post.

Stuyvesant High School located on Chambers Street in downtown Manhattan requires all students, by the end of their sophomore year, to attend a swim class in order to meet the school's graduation requirement

The Pool at the Community Center at Stuyvesant High School

Brian Moran (pictured) is the Assistant Principal Safety and Security and Physical Education at Stuyvesant High School in New York 

The all-girl swim classes at the prestigious public college preparatory high school were no longer an option when classes started up again last fall after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The popularity of the classes created a programming logjam.

The school's assistant principal of physical education Brian Moran told the school's student newspaper The Spectator that the girls swim gym was removed because 'it created a major issue, mostly with programming.'

He said that a large number of their female students requested the gym class and that the extra classes needed would clash with the scheduling of science labs held on alternate days.

He explained that a teacher and trained lifeguard must be present during the swim classes.

Moran said that the young Muslim women can wear a 'burkini' - a full body swimsuit where only the face, hands and feet are exposed. But some of the women do not feel comfortable wearing the form-fitting suits in front of the opposite sex. 

A Department of Education insider revealed to the Post that Stuyvesant may be in violation of a state regulation. The A-630 Chancellor's Regulation requires schools to grant 'accommodation of religious observances and practices,' whenever possible. 

A 16-year-old Muslim tenth grade student said, 'religious swimwear is going to stick to your body when you leave the swimming pool, so it's still just awkward.' 

Seung Yu (pictured) is the Principal at Stuyvesant High School in New York

There are 3,300 students who attend the public college preparatory high school

Tasnim Chowdhury, a senior at Stuyvesant, participated in the all-girls swim class when she was a sophomore, and is hoping the school will reinstate it for her younger female peers.  

'I'm not comfortable swimming with boys because I'm Muslim and it's really hard 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 it's changed all of a sudden.'

It is unclear how many students at the school are Muslim.

Freshman Sarzil Chowdhury, 14, who participated in the co-ed swim class, and wore a burka-style swimsuit, said she 'didn't really like it that much.' 

'It was a bit uncomfortable at first because I wasn't used to being so close to boys,' she said. 

Student Joey Chen has demanded Principal Seung C. Yu bring back the girls-only classes and called the decision to eliminate them a 'blatant disregard of the faith of a large percentage of the student body' in a piece for the student paper. 

'(Students) are left helpless to choose between their faith or their Stuyvesant diploma,' she wrote.