They're Next Door To The First Church Of Christ Computer Programmer*

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit filed claiming that a North Carolina school violated the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old student by suspending her for wearing a nose piercing. Wait - 14-year-old are still in school in North Carolina?

The lawsuit 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 is more than fashion, but an article of faith. She and her mother, Nikki, belong to a (very) small religious group called the Church of Body Modification, that sees tattoos, piercings and other adornment as channels to the divine. Holy nasal studs? I'm still not on board with the Shroud of Turin being a significant religious relic.

"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 in response to the Johnston County school system's dress code. It bans facial piercings, short skirts, sagging pants, "abnormal hair color" and other items deemed distracting or disruptive. The loophole is 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." No questions there, right?

Wrong. Ariana Iacono has been suspended four times since fall classes started, missing 19 out of 28 school days so far. 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 - the dreaded continuation school! And she still wouldn't be allowed to wear the nose piercing in the other school.

The suit states 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 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." Nikki Iacono (32 - of course), joined the Church of Body Modification in 2009, and her daughter followed a year later.

It's a pretty silly dress code, compounded by the even sillier and flimsy "religion". But while it holds little water, the school district is not following their own regulations. If they really want to focus their attention on the issues, they ought to work on keeping 18 year olds from having kids when they receive a diploma, and not getting caught up in goofy sects.


* a Paranoia reference - zing!