Lawsuit Amended to Stop School Harassment of Boy Suspended from School for Wearing a Rosary to Class

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

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

(Syracuse, NY) – Today the lawyers for a 13 year old boy who was suspended from school for wearing a rosary to class amended their complaint to also address the harassment which school officials have directed to the boy after he returned to school under court order. A lawsuit was filed on June 1, 2010 to allow the boy to wear his rosary after the Schenectady School District suspended the boy claiming that his rosary violated the dress code as a “gang related symbol.” Also on June 1st the judge in the case granted the first court order to allow him to return to school with his rosary as the case progresses. The harassment occurred in the last few weeks of school even after the judge granted a second court order on June 9, 2010 directed the school to stop any harassment.

The amended complaint in the federal lawsuit filed today itemized the harassment to which the boy has been subjected since returning to school under these court orders. It includes being put on lunch time detention and forced to sit in the middle of the lunch room with kids who misbehaved in other ways. The school told the boy that he was being punished for running in the hallway the previous month. School official also “wrote up” disciplinary complaints of vaguely described or unarticulated infractions which the boy was alleged to have committed.

“The tenacity of this school district to grind down on someone who exercises his religious rights is astounding,” said attorney Raymond Dague of Syracuse, 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. “Even after we as his attorneys wrote the school’s lawyer several letters detailing the harassment from the school and asking that this behavior stop, they ignored our letters and kept up the harassment of him. When we get to a jury with this case, they will be outraged at this school district for what they have done to this lad. ”

The case is next scheduled to be in court in Albany on September 8, 2010 before federal district court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn for motions.

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’s in the case contend 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.