Boy Suspended from School for Wearing Rosary to Class Sues to Get back in the Classroom

Tuesday, June 1, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Raymond J. Dague,
Syracuse, New York 315-422-2052
http://www.daguelaw.com/

(Syracuse, NY) – Attorneys for a 13-year-old boy have brought suit against the public school district in which the boy is attending middle school because the school officials suspended him indefinitely for wearing a Rosary to school. The federal lawsuit seeks to allow the boy to return to class, and to prevent the school for taking action against him for his religious expression which, according to school administrators’ interpretation of the school dress code policy, bans the boy from wearing a Rosary.

“The only rational explanation of the conduct of these school administrators is that they are hostile to the religious expression of this boy,” said attorney Raymond Dague of Syracuse, who is one of the attorneys affiliated with the American Center for Law and Justice who filed the lawsuit on behalf of 13-year-old Raymond and his mother, Chantell Hosier. “These administrators claim that the boy wearing the rosary violates the school’s ‘gang related’ clothing ban, but that is so ludicrous that nobody would believe such a silly pretext. And why throw the kid out of school for this? This is a school district which needs to take a hard look at where it is focusing its energies if they are chasing such seriously misguided causes as this.”

The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York and is assigned to Albany based federal district court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn. Listed as defendants in the lawsuit is the Schenectady City School District and other school officials - including the principal of Oneida Middle School where the boy attends.

The suit requests a jury trial and asserts that the school's actions violated Raymond's constitutional rights of speech and expression, free exercise of religion, and due process under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

In suspending Raymond, school officials contended that wearing a Rosary that included religious beads violated the school district's dress code policy and asserted that the Rosary is considered a gang-related symbol.

The complaint contends that Raymond wears the Rosary to express his faith in God and honor the memory of a deceased uncle and a brother who died with that very same Rosary in his hand. The complaint also asserts that Raymond is not a member of any criminal gang and does not wear his Rosary to promote gang membership or violence. The complaint also notes that Raymond has been wearing the Rosary since September 2009 without causing "any disruption to the school environment."

The lawsuit, which requests a trial by jury, urges the court to declare the disciplinary actions taken by school officials against Raymond unconstitutional, to declare the school's dress code policy unconstitutional and to prevent it from being used to punish student like Raymond in the future.

American Center for Law and Justice focuses on constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C.