On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Attorneys File Suit in District Court in Defense of Muslim Girl's Right to Wear Religious Head Covering to School
MUSKOGEE, Okla.--Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma on behalf of an 11-year-old Muslim girl who was twice suspended by school officials for wearing a religious head covering. Institute attorneys argue that the school's actions violated Nashala Hearn's rights to free speech, free exercise of religion and due process as guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Institute attorneys are asking the court to declare the school's dress code policy to be unconstitutionally vague. The lawsuit also seeks to require school officials to revise the dress code to accommodate the religious dress of their students and expunge Nashala's educational record of the two suspensions.Nashala Hearn, along with her family, are followers of the Islamic faith, which requires females to wear a headscarf called a "hijab" in public places, a requirement Nashala has consistently followed in expressing her commitment to her sincerely-held Islamic religious beliefs. This fall, Nashala began attending the sixth grade at Benjamin Franklin Science Academy, a public middle school in Muskogee, Okla. On September 11, 2003, Nashala was informed by her principal that she would no longer be permitted to wear her hijab to school, because it was prohibited by the school dress code. Institute attorneys have pointed out that while the dress code prohibits "hats, caps, bandannas, plastic caps, and hoods on jackets inside the [school] building," it makes no mention of hijabs or any other kind of religious head covering. Despite the principal's warning, Nashala continued to wear the hijab to school in keeping with her religious beliefs. On October 1, 2003, Nashala was suspended from school for three days. Upon returning to school on October 7 after serving the suspension, Nashala was once again suspended, this time for five days. Although Nashala has been allowed to return to school until the matter is resolved and continues to wear the hijab, she is subject to sanction under the school dress code at the whim of her principal and other school authorities.
"School districts that pay lip service to pluralism and diversity but send a message of exclusion to religious adherents whose faith imposes certain dress requirements repudiate those same values in practice," stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "The First Amendment exists to protect the devoutly religious, such as Muslims, Orthodox Jews and Christians, from such unconstitutional discrimination."
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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