Ex-prison guard's Rastafarian beliefs lead to prison lawsuit

[reddread]

Source: The Fresno Bee

Solomon Stanley says he never thought his Rastafari religion — which mandates followers to wear dreadlocks and a beard — would cause him problems as a prison guard.

"It's not a radical religion," he says. "We promote peace."

But his refusal to cut his hair and beard has generated two lawsuits — one in federal court in Fresno and another in Fresno County Superior Court — that accuse prison officials in Delano of religious harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

In his lawsuits, Stanley, 47, an ex-prison guard, contends North Kern State Prison officials gave him a religious exemption in 2003 to wear long dreadlocks and a beard.

But when a new command unit took over in 2008, Stanley says, his supervisors dispatched prison guards "to do their dirty work." They called him "Bob Marley" and "Rastaman" and badgered him to cut his hair. When he complained, they changed his job duties


Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/02/08/3758271/ex-guards-rastafarian-beliefs.html

[marble falls]

1. Leave the man alone. Beats a mullet any day.

[Major Nikon]

2. The prison is probably going to lose this one

Stanley did exactly what he was supposed to do. He asked for and was granted a religious accommodation to the grooming standards. Employers are required to honor religious accommodations unless they create an "undue hardship on the employer's operation of its business" which the courts have held is a pretty high hurdle for them to jump.

[PosterChild]

3. Hope he wins!

Sounds like he has a good case against them.