Nathalie Kenefick

Spurgin 2

14 February 2019

News Story 1

Two weeks ago, Leaguetown High School sophomore Stacy Carol was suspended for

three days for refusing to remove her lip piercing.

Carol returned to Leaguetown after serving her suspension and has now been in in-school

suspension for continually wearing her lip piercing.

There will be a discipline hearing on April 10 to remove Carol to an alternative school.

"I don't understand why the district won't drop this,” Carol said. “I have never been

suspended. In fact, I have never had a referral. I am a straight-A student. I just want to get back

to class.”

Leaguetown ISD has a very strict dress code, only allowing two Muslim students

permission to break it in order for them to continue wearing their hijabs.

“When we created this dress code in 2009, the district sought input from students, faculty

and community members,” Superintendent Parker Gordon said. “Together, we designed a plan

that was appropriate for our district. Facial jewelry did not make the cut.”

Carol and her mother, Lareina, are members of the Church of Body Modification, an

interfaith church that practices ancient and modern body modification rites as ways of

experiencing the divine.

 “Our spirituality comes from what we choose to do to ourselves,” Stacy said. “Through

body modification, we can change how we see ourselves and the world around us, not every

member has a facial piercing. You choose how you want to express your faith.”

The American Civil Liberties Union has agreed to defend Carol at her discipline hearing

on April 10. Leaguetown ISD is standing firm to their dress code and will decide whether or not

to move Carol to an alternative school until she removes her lip piercing.

"The piercing is part of Stacy's religion,” Carol’s mother Lareina said. “My daughter

wants to go to class, but she also doesn't want her First Amendment rights trampled, I asked

Stacy if she wanted to back down and take out the lip jewelry, but she believes in our church and

in our freedom. She wants to stand up for herself and for that, I am proud.”

Carol has decided that if she were to lose at the upcoming disciplinary hearing on April 10

she is going to pursue this issue in court. Constitutional lawyer Jett Ramirez believes that Carol

has a weak case and the First Amendment offers her little protection in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The U.S. Supreme Court seriously weakened the reach of the free-exercise clause in

1990 by ruling that the government no longer must show a ‘compelling state interest’ before

denying a religious exemption to an otherwise neutral, generally applicable law,” Ramirez said.

Stacy and Lareina intend to continue fighting Leaguetown ISD for Carol’s religious right

to wear her lip piercing.

“Stacy has a solid case,” ACLU lawyer Sonia Stephens said. “It is in the best interest of

the school district to allow her a religious exemption from the dress code. A court case could be

costly and lengthy. The district doesn't have much to stand on since it already has two religious

exemptions on file.”