Court Order Continues the Right of Student to Wear Rosary

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Raymond J. Dague, Syracuse, New York
(315) 422-2052
http://www.DagueLaw.com

(Syracuse, NY) – The 13-year-old boy who brought suit against the public school where he is attends can continue to wear a Rosary to school through September 10, 2010, according to a stipulated court order which was filed in the United States District Court in Albany today. Attorneys Raymond Dague of Syracuse, New York and Edward White of Ann Arbor, Michigan, both working for the boy on behalf of the American Center for Law and Justice, signed the stipulation along with the lawyer for the Schenectady City School District. Today federal district court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn signed and filed the court order which ratified the stipulation.

The complaint in the federal lawsuit was filed last Tuesday. The complaint sought to let the boy return to class wearing his rosary after he was suspended by the school. In suspending Raymond Hosier, school officials contended that wearing a rosary violated the school district's dress code claiming that the rosary is a gang-related symbol. The school had suspended the boy indefinitely until the court order last week nullified the suspension.

Shortly after the judge ordered the boy’s suspension lifted the last Tuesday, the school took him back but the school put him into lunch-time detention on both Wednesday and Thursday. The stipulated court order signed by the judge today addressed that issue, and provided that the school is “enjoined from ... imposing discipline, including but not limited to detention” on him for wearing his rosary or for going to court to assert his right to do so.

“You have really got to wonder about a school which places a kid on detention on the very day he comes back to school under court order,” said attorney Raymond Dague of Syracuse, one of the attorneys representing 13-year-old Raymond and his mother Chantell Hosier against the school district and the Oneida Middle School where the boy attends. “We are glad that this harassment of him should finally stop, but this school district seems to be extremely hostile to student expression of religious beliefs. I guess they have just not heard of the First Amendment in Schenectady, because the judge’s first court order did not seem to have that much impact on them.”

Hours after the lawsuit was filed last Tuesday challenging the suspension, Albany based federal district court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn signed a court order directing the school to let the boy attend class at the school until a June 11, 2010 court date. Today’s court order postponed the June 11, 2010 hearing and adjourned it to September 8, 2010.

The lawsuit requests a jury trial and asserts that the school's actions violated Raymond's constitutional rights of speech and expression, and free exercise of religion.

The complaint in the case 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 in an auto accident which Raymond witnessed. The rosary which Raymond now wears is very same rosary which his brother was holding when he died.