Should Boys And Girls Be In Separate Classes?

Should boys and girls be placed in separate classes in middle school?
That's the question a lot of people in Mobile are talking about.
The American Civil Liberties Union in Alabama is challenging Hankins Middle School's policy of separating boys and girls in classes.
Hankins parent Mark Jones said he contacted the ACLU on behalf of his seventh grade son, Jacob.
The ACLU sent a letter to the Mobile Public School System challenging the policy.
Jones said he didn't like the fact his son and other boys are in separate classes from girls.
Mark Jones said, "How are the kids going to develop socially when they can't be with members of the opposite sex?"
Allison Neal, a staff attorney for the ACLU in Alabama, said, "We believe that it's illegal. It violates Title 9 of its implementing regulation, the Equal Education Opportunities Act and the Constitution.
Jacob Jones said, "It just teaches how bad segregation was between black and whites. Now, (they) turn around and do it to us."
But Hankins Principal Cheryl Wittner said boys and girls at Hankins eat breakfast and attend assemblies together.
Wittner said she favors gender-specific classes because research shows "boys and girls learn differently, especially at the middle school age. The middle school age child has a wide gap between how boys learn and how girls learn."
News Five asked some parents of Hankins students what they thought of the separate classes.
Nicole Ezell said, "I personally don't feel like its right for each school to decide whether they can or cannot do it."
Hankins Parent April Miller said, "I think that the kids seem to study a little bit better. I know that my son personally focuses a little bit better."
And when asked if he would rather have classes with girls, Miller's son, Timothy Thorsteins, said, "Sometimes I would, but not all the time because sometimes I need to focus just a little bit better."
There are other schools in Mobile and Baldwin Counties that have single sex classes.
The ACLU has not filed a lawsuit yet, but Mark Jones says that could be coming if changes aren't made.