Faith under fire: Student told to remove rosary

[pnwmom]

149. That isn't relevant. What is relevant is the U.S. constitution,

which gives people the right to free expression of their religion.

The ACLU strongly supports students' right to wear rosaries. And students who fight the prohibition are winning.

http://global.christianpost.com/news/neb-schools-ban-on-rosary-style-necklace-touches-on-free-speech-issues-57228/

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, standing behind Carey, said in a statement it “strongly opposed policy on the grounds it violated the First Amendment’s guarantee to practice religion freely.”

“Students have the right to express their faith in public schools,” ACLU Nebraska Legal Director Amy Miller argued. “Whether a student wants to wear a crucifix, a rosary or another symbol, it is wrong for school officials to interfere.”

“We understand the serious concerns about gangs in schools, but Fremont Public Schools should demonstrate there is a concrete gang connection before shutting down a student’s free speech and religious rights. ACLU Nebraska has and will continue to support the constitutional rights of religious people.”

Agreeing with the ACLU, Omaha Catholic Archdiocese Chancellor the Rev. Joseph Taphorn also said there needed to be concrete evidence of gang affiliation before punishing students for religious expression, in an appearance on KETV.


The district explicitly protects the right of the students to express their values in what they wear, and explicitly limits the schools in what they can prohibit.

And the district is right -- otherwise they could get sued.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/n-y-teen-suspended-for-wearing-rosary-sues-school

Editor’s note: On Oct. 30, 2010, a U.S. district judge approved a settlement agreement between the Schenectady City School District and Raymond Hosier, who was suspended for wearing a rosary to school. The school district agreed to pay nearly $25,000 in damages, legal fees and costs, and to expunge any disciplinary notes stemming from the incident from Hosier’s permanent record. The school district also recently changed its policy banning the rosary from being worn in school.

http://www.yumasun.com/articles/school-79814-rosary-religious.html


Much to the dismay of school administrators, religious students are pushing back. Last year, 14-year-old Jonae Devlin sought legal help after she was suspended by her Houston school district for wearing a rosary in memory of her grandmother. Two years ago in Schenectady, N.Y., 13-year-old Raymond Hosier's family filed suit after being told Raymond couldn't wear rosary beads to honor his older brother, who had died in an accident.

The Catholic rosary isn't the only religious symbol caught in the wide safety net cast by public school anti-gang efforts. In 1999, for example, a Mississippi school district barred Ryan Green, a Jewish 11th-grader, from wearing the Star of David. In 2003, an Oklahoma school district suspended sixth-grader Nashala Hern for wearing her hijab, a head scarf she wore to observe her faith.

After calling in lawyers, all of these students eventually won the right to wear symbols of their religion to school. It's likely that Jake also will prevail should his family challenge the rosary ban in Coon Rapids.

Students win these cases because the U.S. Supreme Court famously recognized in 1969 that students “do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate” (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District).