Thursday, June 09, 2011

Student wins right to wear nose stud in class after arguing ban violated her religious rights as member of Church of Body Modification

But Christian prayer can be forbidden of course
A high school student has won the right to wear a nose stud in class after claiming she was a member of a religious group that practices body modification.

Ariana Iacono, 15, was suspended four times this school year from Clayton High School, North Carolina, for violating the dress code by refusing to remove her small nose stud. The ninth grade student claimed the nose stud was an essential part of her faith in the Church of Body Modification.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the school system on her behalf and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order in October demanding that the school lifted her suspension and allowed her to wear the jewellery.

Officials with the Johnston County Schools said they would drop their appeal of the order, and would settle it out of court 'rather than pursue a lengthy process of hearings, depositions and likely appeals'.

SOURCE

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did any of the EduNazi's bother to demand that she prove this to be an established religion? (ie. is she the only follower?) Apparently, the judge was too stupid to ask.

Anonymous said...

This just shows the absurdity of giving undue "respect" to any religious claim. And who decides what is an established or recognizable religion, and on what justifiable grounds?

Spurwing Plover said...

And at the same time they expelss kids who wear crosses typical two faced school officials

Anonymous said...

... and when schools ban crosses or prayer, the ACLU don't want to know.

Anonymous said...

The court opened new territory on this one.

Originally one had to show that the action was a central part of the religious belief.

This court made up something new by saying the action simply had to be a sincerely held belief.

This means that wearing a cross, or beads or whatever are now legal in that state as the action of wearing them is a "sincerely held belief," even though wearing a cross or beads is not central to the actual religion.

Anonymous said...

Good point!

Anonymous said...

i am going to start a public masturbation religion and dare anyone to arrest me, i would yell religious discrimination and get the a.c.(barf)l.u. to defend me.

Anonymous said...

Explain to me again why it was any of the schools buisness that the kid had piercing jewlery in her nose at all? If she legaly obtained the piercing then the state has allowed her to put it there. Thus the state-run school has no buisness telling her she can't have it.
Want the winning example-what would they do if she had gotten a facial tattoo? They would have gotten over it. Just like they get to do with this.

Oh, and for the "but they ban christian stuff" whiners...pierings and tattoos as part of religious ritual are considerably older than your little cult. So until you can get past the 5300 year old ink Ötzi the Iceman is sporting you're still the new kids.

Anonymous said...

Explain to me again why it was any of the schools buisness that the kid had piercing jewlery in her nose at all?

Because there are safety issues. You can legally buy flip flops but that doesn't mean that you can wear them in school or on the job for that matter.

Oh, and for the "but they ban christian stuff" whiners...

So you are fine with non-Christian articles but not fine with Christian articles?

Anonymous said...

ACLU stands for ATHEISTS.COMMUNISTS & LAWYERS,UNDERGROUND