 |
| Photo by Joe Shlabotnik. |
The ACLU of Louisiana has come to the defense of a Rastafarian boy who has been suspended from school and forbidden to return until he cuts his dreadlocks.
The boy was sent home from South Plaquemines High School when classes resumed Aug. 8 because his dreadlocks extended beyond the collar of his shirt, in apparent violation of the school dress code.
After he returned to school the following week with his hair pinned up, school officials told the student his dreadlocks remained in violation.
Rastafarians believe Leviticus 21:5 forbids them to cut their hair, and dreadlocks are central to their religious beliefs.
“The wearing of dreadlocks for (the student) is akin to the wearing of a religious icon by another student,” the ACLU said in a letter sent Monday to the Plaquemines Parish School Board.
The student’s mother provided a letter to the school superintendent from the 1st Church of Rastafar I that indicated the boy’s family were members and explained the importance of dreadlocks to their faith.
The superintendent told the teen’s mother that was not sufficient to allow the dreadlocks, and when she asked what documentation would be required, he told the mother he wasn’t a lawyer.
“We would object if the school were to tell a Christian student they could not wear a cross or if it were to permit the wearing of religious icons of one faith and prohibited those of another faith,” the civil rights group said. “In discriminating against (the student’s) religious beliefs, the school is expressing a preference for certain religions, which is unacceptable.”
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment