ACLU: Suspension Over Nose Piercing Is Illegal

RALEIGH, N.C. — The American Civil Liberties Union claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that a North Carolina school violated the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old student by suspending her for wearing a nose piercing.

The lawsuit from the state chapter of the ACLU seeks a court order allowing Ariana Iacono to return immediately to Clayton High School, which has kept her on suspension for four weeks since classes started.

The complaint hinges on Iacono's claim that her nose piercing isn't just a matter of fashion, but an article of faith. She and her mother, Nikki, belong to a small religious group called the Church of Body Modification, which sees tattoos, piercings and the like as channels to the divine.

"This is a case about a family's right to send a 14-year-old honor student to public school without her being forced to renounce her family's religious beliefs," wrote lawyers from the ACLU and the Raleigh firm Ellis & Winters in a brief supporting the lawsuit.

The Johnston County school system has a dress code banning facial piercings, along with short skirts, sagging pants, "abnormal hair color" and other items deemed distracting or disruptive.

But the dress code also allows for exemptions based on "sincerely held religious belief," and says, "the principal or designees shall not attempt to determine whether the religious beliefs are valid, but only whether they are central to religious doctrine and sincerely held."

That's where the school stepped over the line, the lawsuit alleges, saying officials repeatedly dismissed explanations of the Iaconos' faith by the family and their Raleigh minister.

"We followed all the rules, so I don't understand why the school is being so unreasonable," Nikki Iacono said. "The dress code policy allows for a religious exemption, and I explained to the principal and various school officials how my daughter's nose stud is essential to the expression of our family's religious values."

Terri Sessoms, spokeswoman for Johnston County schools, said the district had received notice of the lawsuit, but officials can't comment on disciplinary actions involving individual students.

Ariana Iacono has been suspended four times since fall classes started, missing 19 out of 28 school days so far. On Monday, the school system denied an appeal of her most recent suspension, and told her she'd have to attend South Campus Community School, an alternative facility for students with disciplinary and other problems. She still wouldn't be allowed to wear the nose piercing in the other school.

Nikki Iacono, 32, joined the Church of Body Modification in 2009, and her daughter followed a year later. Their minister, Richard Ivey, thinks school officials are dismissing a little-known belief system simply because it's unfamiliar.

"I'm shocked that it's gone this far, but I guess I'm not surprised they'd be so quick to stick with their first judgment and not hear anyone else's reasoning," he said.

Comments

[RogueJedi14]

12:13 PM on 10/09/2010

As a security guard for a private school, I actually see no harm in the ban on the nose piercing. I understand the many complex nuances between public and private schools, but I wanted to say that so as to explain why I wont consider that the problem in this case.

What I find weird about this whole thing is the religion. The only thing remotely religious about their website is a few references to a soul. Another questionable fact from their website is that they are seeking corporate funding. These make it seem less like a religion and more like a body modification club.

[vtrob77]

11:44 AM on 10/10/2010

one person's fiction reading club, is another person's Christian bible study group. I don't think the nature or character of what is religion and what is not is up for debate. Even the school policy says its not up for the administrators to determine what is and what is not religion.

This issues gets at the basis of control of individualism and the attempt by society to regulate what is normal and acceptable. If a kid wants to have pink hair and nose piercings and their parents are ok with it, then the school should let them in. If it's a disruption to the classroom, the school should educate kids on how to focus in a sea of diverse individuals rather than attempting to normalize everyone.

Learning the ability to appreciate individuals for who they are and how they express themselves is important. Teaching kids that if you have pink hair you're weird and that it isn't acceptable sends the wrong message. Where does it end? If one isn't violating someone else, then one should be free to be themselves with the width possible latitude.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle

[LynnyC]

01:05 PM on 10/11/2010

exactly. I was called into the school's counselor's office for expressing my beliefs in a drawing. because they didn't understand my beliefs they dismissed it as Satanistic (no offense satanists). I stood my ground and got left alone, but they are jerks to question my beliefs and treat me like a disturbed person. It's like if you aren't jewish, christian or muslim, then you shouldn't have rights.

If a student can wear a religious head piece to school, then an atheist child should be able to wear a hat too. Religion should not be used to give special privileges to some. If you wear a hat or your hair is tall, then maybe you should have to sit in the back of the classroom so that other students can see, but besides that, why does it matter?

How is a nose ring distracting? Like nobody has ever seen someone with a piercing before? And there were tons of girls at my highschool that had dark hair one day, and all of a sudden they had orange hair the next, because of a bad bleaching, so then would they not be allowed to learn because of that? Would they be forced to do permanent damage to their hair by trying to dye it back before school starts the next day? If I wanted my kid to have no free expression of individuality, then I would send them to a school with uniforms. Shouldn't public schools be more tolerant?

[Jen1025]

12:14 AM on 10/09/2010

Religious claims aside, (which I am somewhat skeptical of) I know of teachers with nose piercings in more open-minded districts. There are really more important things for a school to fuss about.

[KJLSanDiego]

02:51 PM on 10/08/2010

A nose ring, especially if it is a stud, is hardly a distraction.
That school went way overboard.

[GunnyJ]

08:18 AM on 10/08/2010

Stupidity is the gift that keeps on giving.....

[Arbutus]

10:39 PM on 10/07/2010

If anything can be a religion, the concept of religion is meaningless. In this case, it seems like a stretch. That being said, a small nose stud can hardly be called disruptive. Then, too, why can't she just take it out when she's at school?

[W Santiago]

08:35 PM on 10/07/2010

Well everyone is wrong here. I know that sounds odd, but it's true. The Church of Body Modification is not quite a church rather than way of life. Hiding under the guise of religion is a farce a best. Since in 2002 the courts ruled that since it was not a requirement of the faith to be pierced or tattooed in any specific way, or even at all, then the policy was not discriminatory. On the other hand, a simple nose piercing is not distracting or disruptive to anyone other than the teachers and administrators of the school. Since they are the adults in the school they need to act like it and teach these children. Stop getting all caught up in the look and teach the kid. Some of the most intelligent and insightful conversations I've had have been with the perforated and ink soaked community.

[Daoine]

08:27 PM on 10/07/2010

Anything the infringes upon the education of others poses a problem. Then it becomes a question of whose rights are more important; my right to wear my nose ring or your right to learn World Geography? If the piercing was used to distract from the educational environment of other students then it would be a disciplinary issue. On the other hand, anything new or out of the ordinary is going to cause at least a slight, momentary distraction, depending upon how it's handled. But once the shiny wears off it'll just be ignored like everything else. From that perspective, the school has made too big a deal out of it. It's not like she was being sneaky and trying to bring a weapon into school. The thing was right in the middle of her face after all! Not much chance if hiding it.

[Arbutus]

02:40 PM on 10/07/2010

http://uscobm.com/mission-statement/ Disturbing. Is this a church or a club?

[eric14]

05:21 AM on 10/07/2010

If they move to Britain they could become the biggest religion.

[kingoftheremote]

08:54 PM on 10/06/2010

I guess the tattoo parlor now enjoys a tax free building. Hallelujah and pass the plate.

[Bethany Grace]

08:17 PM on 10/06/2010

Why are so many people decrying a church focusing on body modification as ridiculous? Many religions celebrate SOME form of body modification. For example, under the Jewish faith, male children must be circumcised. I realize that this tradition stemmed from necessity, but it is still widely practiced today when circumcision offers few benefits to the modern male in an industrialized nation. Many forms of Hinduism promote piercing the face, especially the nose, and many native African tribal religions feature modifying the body in some extreme ways, as well. Wearing one's religion on their sleeve, or face, as the case may be, is an ancient practice and I don't think this girl should be singled out based on a religious form of body modification.

[Stormyfyre]

07:38 PM on 10/06/2010

if this was a private school I would not have a problem with this. When its a public school, where in the Constitution does it say you are entitled to an education unless you have a nose ring?

[plazdiquehardt]

07:07 PM on 10/06/2010

A student's Bill of Rights does not cease at the schoolhouse gates. - Justice Abe Fortas

ACLU, FTW.

[Wilburrr]

07:05 PM on 10/06/2010

We don't have the teacher/school's version on this. If this student were using the nose ring to create distractions in the classroom then she has no right to impinge on the education of her fellow students. This would reflect disciplinary issues that are a huge problem in our public educational system. If that is not the case, then dress code regulations opposing simple nose ring ("small... and not too expensive") seems a bit pedantic.

--apologies to Monty Python

[Enock Zamora]

07:03 PM on 10/06/2010

The only people we should [suspend] in this country are those that take our rights from us that is given to us in our Constitution. It would be beside me if I had a tattoe or any type of piercing, however, that is my right, and I be damned if someone told me to get one. You go girl!