Policy draws fire
By JESSICA KELLER - ARGUS OBSERVER
Saturday, September 1, 2007 10:39 PM PDT
| |
| Fruitland Middle School sixth-graders Amanda McDavid and Dominic Schmid, wearing school uniform-approved colors, load up their backpacks after school last week. District officials maintain the implementation of school uniforms has been smooth with very few problems, although the district is looking into a letter from the ACLU of Boise, questioning whether the policy is constitutional. |
FRUITLAND - While Fruitland School District officials say the implementation of a new school uniform policy has been smooth, the policy language has come under fire from the Boise office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The school district received a letter from ACLU attorney Matt EchoHawk, who suggested the school district’s policy could be unconstitutional. According to EchoHawk’s letter, prohibiting items bearing letters, numbers, images or logos that are not related to Fruitland schools, including religious or political messages, could violate students’ rights to free speech and religious liberty.
The letter, however, does not go so far to state the uniform policy overall is unconstitutional.
“While the ACLU of Idaho has not taken a position against the concept of school uniforms in public schools in our state, we believe the district’s new policy as currently written and as described by school board members violates the First Amendment rights of students,” the letter said.
EchoHawk in his letter goes on to list a number of cases setting precedent of students’ rights to free expression. According to the letter, “Public school students have the right to express themselves at school so long as their speech does not contribute to a material and substantial disruption of the educational process," including wearing buttons on clothing and wearing items bearing slogans.
“If the Fruitland District imposes this restrictive dress policy, it must show that there are grounds to believe that the restricted expression poses a substantial and material disruption to school functioning,” EchoHawk’s letter said.
Regarding religious liberty, according to the letter, the ACLU of Idaho believes the policy may violate Idaho’s Free exercise of Religion Act, which requires “that if the school district’s actions substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion, the district must demonstrate that its actions are essential to further a compelling government interest, and that its actions are the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.”
The letter states, as it is worded, the school district’s policy language does not include exceptions for religious items.
“Should any Fruitland students hold religious beliefs which motivate them to dress in a manner prohibited by the policy, we hope the district will act appropriately to either revise its rules or demonstrate how its policy satisfies this high standard for the protection of religious liberty,” EchoHawk said in his letter.
The letter goes on urge the school district to revisit the dress policy “and allow their students the opportunity to express themselves in a manner that does not contribute to a material and substantial disruption of the educational process.”
Fruitland School District Superintendent Alan Felgenhauer said earlier this week he is waiting to hear back from the district’s attorney regarding the letter.
“I know she has talked to Mr. EchoHawk about the letter, but she has not gotten back to me where they are at on any of the discussion,” Felgenhauer said.
Felgenhauer said he expected to hear something from the district’s attorney at the end of the week, but Felgenhauer could not be reached for comment Friday.
He did say earlier in the week, however, district officials had their attorney make sure the policy was legal before implementing it.
He said they did not talk about religious or political messages specifically when putting the policy together. Felgenhauer said, however, the district is only interested in prohibiting gang-related messages, not political or religious. As far as religious jewelry or chains with crosses or anything else like that, officials did not discuss them.
“We’ve never said ‘no we’re not going to allow them to wear those,’” Felgenhauer said.
He said district officials will address the issue once the district’s attorney gets back to them with a recommendation.
The ACLU of Idaho was contacted by Cameron McLaughlin, a recent Fruitland High School graduate and vocal opponent to the policy, who was concerned the policy did not permit religious or political messages.
McLauglin said last week he was pleased the ACLU had decided to look into the matter and write the letter addressing the free speech and religious freedom issues.
“I was very appreciative to what the letter had said because those were my initial concerns,” McLaughlin said. “I was very proud of what was written.”
He said he was not concerned the ACLU had no opinion on uniforms in public schools.
“As far as that goes, that’s fine with me,” he said.
McLaughlin and a group of concerned residents, mostly district parents, are still actively pursuing the dress code issue in their attempt to revisit the policy and go out for a public vote on the matter.
They continue to meet at 7 p.m. each Sunday at Fruitland Community Park to discuss their concerns about the policy, which lately have centered around whether students are being treated fairly and respectfully by the school district officials and whether the uniform policy is being enforced equally, McLaughlin said.
He urges all people interested to attend the meetings.
willie wrote on Mar 9, 2010 2:02 PM: