February 25, 2009
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Religious Freedom
It is Anthony Burgess’s birthday. (He wrote A Clockwork Orange.)
“I was brought up a Catholic, became an agnostic, flirted with Islam and now hold a position which may be termed Manichee. I believe the wrong God is temporarily ruling the world and that the true God has gone under. Thus I am a pessimist but believe the world has much solace to offer: love, food, music, the immense variety of race and language, literature and the pleasure of artistic creation.”
– Anthony Burgess, The New York Times obituary, Nov. 26, 1993The following story escaped my attention for about a month:
The Needville Independent School District has a dress code that requires boys to have short hair. That, in itself, in not applying equally to female students, is a religion-based policy. Since his parents refused to cut off their five-year-old’s braids the school required the kindergartner, “to wear his long hair in a tight braid stuffed down his shirt at all times.”
Well before school started in August, the kindergartner’s parents requested a religious exemption to NISD’s dress code that requires boys to keep their hair short. After months of procedural maneuvers that the court viewed as “designed to make Plaintiffs’ abandon their [exemption] request, or leave the district, rather than to seriously consider [the boy’s] religious beliefs,” NISD adopted the challenged policy instead. When the boy nevertheless attended school with two long braids, in accordance with his family’s religious and cultural practices, school officials forced him into in-school suspension.
. . .“Today’s ruling recognizes NISD’s policy for what it was—a measure that would cause A.A. serious discomfort without doing anything to advance the school’s stated goals of maintaining student discipline and hygiene,” said Daniel Mach, Director of Litigation for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “We are delighted the court prohibited the school from punishing this young boy’s expression of his faith and heritage.”
“Particularly in light of the religious and cultural repression American Indians have faced historically, this decision comes as a powerful reminder of the values our Constitution guarantees to all Americans regardless of creed,” said Fleming Terrell, Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Texas.
The lawsuit was filed Oct. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Today’s ruling holds that NISD’s policy for A.A.’s hair violates the student’s right to religious freedom under the First Amendment and Texas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act; his right to free expression under the First Amendment; and his parents’ fundamental rights to direct his religious upbringing under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. It permanently enjoins NISD from enforcing its policy for A.A.’s hair.
I don’t suppose, however, that this decision has given any relief to the other students subject to that absurd “dress” code that dictates the length of males’ hair, but not that of females.
Comments (10)
I never had no fucking idea who wrote “A Clockwork Orange”.
I do remember slightly having to read it as a gradely avereage student… not paying much attention…..
To be serious? It fucked up one of my fav or eyet tunes eva….
I missed the fucking point right?
I’ll be back……………….. or not
A Clockwork Orange. The stuff of great discussions, lol.
While I do strongly dislike a most of the “politically correct” bullshit, I have never wavered on my stance that all people should have equal rights. To me, that’s a natural part of life (unnatural in our society as it may be). Good for this kid—I am glad he got to keep his beautiful Native American/Indian braids. I don’t understand people and their pettiness sometimes. I just don’t. And this, coming from a an Anxiety/Panic person (so it’s not like I don’t understand fear, lol). Love is so much easier and more fulfilling than this crap.
This is nightmarish; it sounds like something right out of the sixties except it is racially motivated. When i heard someone say Texas was “America’s Third World.” I guess they weren’t kidding.
Well I will address the braids…why does it matter to the school….some christian religions also believe cutting ones hair to be a sin….personally…while I do believe a dress code at school may be appropriate…I also believe that it should apply to all students irregardless of gender
Why do I feel like we’re back in the 50s?
I would suppose you’d be right.
This reminds me, also, of the sixties and how the rules for short hair on boys didn’t make sense. It still doesn’t make sense 40 years later.
School rules never cease to amaze me. When I was in 9th or 10th grade, a number of people went out and got their eyebrows pierced. Just a little teeny hoop that wasn’t a big deal. Well, the principal got a bug up his rear and decided that they were distracting. Um… how is a teeny, barely noticeable hoop distracting? Anyway, his solution was to require anyone that had an eyebrow piercing to cover it with a bandaid. Soooo, to protest the rule, everyone who had one went out and made sure to get the brightest, most obnoxious bandaids they could possibly find. Because that tiny hoop is distracting, but crayons, neon, hello kitty, etc, isn’t. Riiight. It took about two weeks of that for the school to drop the rule again.
This school district needs a kick in the pants. What’s wrong with how somebody looks as long as they’re well groomed? Two braids is well groomed. The grizzly adams/never seen a hairbrush look… not so much.
I love Burgess’s comment, btw.
Althought I’m sure a lot of people will look at it on the surface and be offended before they really think about the entire thing or even finish reading it to the end.
of course TX!!! this never happened in MN so many long haired kids! We don’t cut their hair until they are 2 then it is a option up to the child after that. My oldest is growing his out. I better not have to fight for that freedom of individuality.
Sad I didn’t think this happened anymore. Thanks for the info…
Clockwork orange was a warning of this age of digital statsumerism