A North Carolina student was suspended from school recently for wearing a nose-stud. Follow the link below. Read the article. Answer the questions and post your responses.
What reason did school officals give for the suspension. Does their policy allow them to make excepetions to permit facial jewelry under some circumstances?
Share your opinion. How can this issue be resolved? What would you do in her situation?
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http://tweentribune.com/content/should-student-be-suspended-nose-stud
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National news
Should student be suspended for nose stud? A soft-spoken 14-year-old's nose piercing has landed her a suspension from school and forced her into the middle of a fight over her First Amendment right to exercise her religion.
Ariana Iacono says she just wants to be a normal teenager at Clayton High School, about 15 miles southeast of Raleigh. She has been suspended since last week because her nose ring violates the Johnston County school system's dress code.
"I think it's kind of stupid for them to kick me out of school for a nose piercing," she said. "It's in the First Amendment for me to have freedom of religion."
Iacono and her mother, Nikki, belong to the Church of Body Modification, a small group unfamiliar to rural North Carolina, but one with a clergy, a statement of beliefs and a formal process for accepting new members..
The Iaconos say the school system is ignoring its own dress code policy, which allows exemptions on religious grounds. The effect, Nikki Iacono, 32, says, is that Johnston County school officials are setting themselves up as judges of what constitutes a "real" religion.
On Tuesday, after her first suspension ended, Ariana went back to school with her mother — and her nose ring. She was suspended again, this time for five days. If she comes back to school on Sept. 21 with the nose stud, she'll face a 10-day suspension or referral to "alternative schooling," Nikki Iacono said.
Richard Ivey, the Iaconos' Raleigh-based minister in the church, describes the church as a non-theistic faith that draws people who see tattoos, piercings and other physical alterations as ways of experiencing the divine.
The church claims roughly 3,500 members nationwide, having started about two years ago, after adopting the name of a similar group that had been dormant for several years.
The Johnston County schools dress code policy prohibits several types of facial jewelry but does allow officials to make accommodations for sincerely held religious beliefs.
"One of the remarkable things about religious freedom is that people have all kinds of beliefs that look to others as bizarre but make internal sense to them," Gordon said. "We really can only claim to be a country that respects religious liberty if we respect the variety of beliefs that exist in the country — both new and old."
The Iaconos have contacted the North Carolina ACLU chapter for help, and legal director Katy Parker says the school is on shaky ground.
Students' free expression rights are limited at schools, but Parker believes a legal category known as a "hybrid right" overrules those curbs. Essentially, the Iaconos are arguing that Ariana's right to free expression and Nikki's right to raise her daughter as she wishes are being abridged.
The ACLU, like the Iaconos and their minister , hope their issue can be resolved without going to court. In the meantime, Nikki and Ariana pick up schoolwork for her to do at home while her peers sit in class.
"I hope they're going to stop suspending me and clear some of these absences from my record," Ariana said. "I want to get into a good college."
- Posted on September 16, 2010
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Submitted by Jessie1999 on Monday, 09/20/2010 - 10:51.
I don't think she should be suspended. It may be against the rules but she spent money for the ring. Just have her do something with it. I don't know how the ring would bother anyone and why they would want her suspended for just one little mistake, everyone one makes mistakes.
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Because she didn't follow the schools dress code.This issue can be resolved by, just taking the stud out, and maybe put it in only in the weekends, or wait till schools over.Instead of keep going back to school and getting suspendtions, and missing all the good assignments, and probably other fun stuff JUST TAKE IT OUT!
ReplyDeleteI think what she's doing is the right thing to do even if she's getting in trouble for it she's standing for her right!You can't control relgions.The girl should keep on trying you should never give up for what you beilive in. I hope everything works out for her. I feel sad and angry about this because she's doing something but its about her religon and she's getting suspended because of it and that's not right.
ReplyDeleteWhat i think that she should do is just go back to school and not were the earing becausewhat they tell her becuse they are not telling her rong they might tell her that becuse they want her to stay safe and not fell like she could do enything that she wants
ReplyDelete