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GONZALES, Texas — Police were called to a school board meeting because of the loud protests of parents upset about a revamped dress code that includes prison-like jumpsuits for kids who don't comply [snip] The school district is implementing a revamped dress code that includes a ban on cargo pants and requires students to wear collared shirts. Those from fifth through 12th grade who don't obey may also be put in prison-style navy blue coveralls the district ordered from Texas Correctional Industries, the industrial arm of prison system. District officials have emphasized that the coveralls are only an option aimed...

Two women claim in a lawsuit that a Michigan McDonald's refused to hire them because they wear the hijab, or Muslim headscarf. Toi Whitfield of Detroit and Quiana Pugh of Dearborn say they were both told by managers at a McDonald's in Dearborn they would have to take off their hijabs to work, the Detroit Free Press reports. They filed a discrimination lawsuit Thursday in Detroit. The Detroit area has one of the biggest Muslim communities in the United States, and the Dearborn McDonald's is one of only two restaurants in the chain that serves halal Chicken McNuggets that meet...

Fast food restaurants have employee dress codes not only for appearances, but for hygiene and safety. With that in mind, this case is sounding a lot like the case of the women wanting to wear Islamic attire in a Midwestern tortilla factory. The local health inspector isn't going to take kindly to long sleeves potentially brushing perishable food, and/or the grill and fryer oil, to say nothing of guidelines for hand-washing (see also: the debate over short sleeves in British hospitals). Then there is the matter of long attire and the potential need to make a quick exit in the...

Lynwood, Illinois - Be careful if you have saggy pants in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood. Village leaders have passed an ordinance that would levy $25 fines against anyone showing three inches (7.62cm) or more of their underwear in public. The mayor of Lynwood, Eugene Williams, says young men walk around town half-dressed, keeping major retailers and economic development away. The American Civil Liberties Union says the ordinance targets young, black men. Young adults in the village, like 21-year-old Joe Klomes, say the new law infringes on their personal style. He said leaders should instead spend money on making...

N.J. Councilman Starts Crusade Against Saggy PantsPaterson Politician Is Sick And Tired Of The Look And If He Has It His Way, Indecency Fines Will Soon Follow Reporting Christine Sloan Jul 15, 2008 8:08 pm US/Eastern PATERSON, N.J. (CBS) ― Instead of "stick 'em up," it will be more like "pull 'em up" now that fashion police in New Jersey have started a crackdown on baggy pants. It's happening in Paterson, where city officials want to put the kibosh on this form of fashion. Bart Johnson says wearing his pants low in a fashion statement, but one councilman is saying...

FLINT, Mich., June 27 (UPI) -- The new police chief in Flint, Mich., has a new policy on low-riding pants -- those that ride low enough to expose the rear end can lead to arrest. Interim Police Chief David Dicks said that he has been getting a lot of complaints from Flint citizens sick of looking at buttocks, Newhouse News Service reported. "This immoral self-expression goes beyond free speech," Dicks said. "It rises to the crime of indecent exposure/disorderly persons." Dicks said that any police officer who spots someone with pants that hang too low and show too much can...

Most Disney fans can tell you about "The Disney Look," the list of strict grooming standards that must be adhered to by all cast members who work "on-stage" or in view of park guests. Disney is now facing a civil rights class-action lawsuit over those standards. Sukhbir Singh Channa, a practicing Sikh, wears a turban and has a beard and long hair in keeping with his religious beliefs. According to the suit, while a student at the University of South Florida, he was hired by Walt Disney World as a seasonal college musician in October 2005, which involves parade and...

No Fans Baring Chests, Proposed Rule Says Bare Or Painted Chests Would Be Banned From Indoor Sports POSTED: 12:11 pm EDT June 6, 2008 WAUSAU, Wis. -- Keep your shirts on. That's the message to Wisconsin high school sports fans. A proposed rule would bar bare or painted chests from indoor sporting events. The recommendation comes from a committee of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. One official of the group noted that students can't go to class shirtless, so they shouldn't be able go to games that way, either. But 15-year-old Steve Gering doesn't agree. He will be a sophomore...

When I came to this country, I took off my hijab. It wasn't an easy decision. I worried at night that God would punish me for it. That's what I had been taught would happen, and it filled me with fear. I was 27, coming from my home country of Iraq to study in California. I hoped that by taking off the hijab I had been wearing for eight years, I would be able to maintain a low profile. In Baghdad, you keep a low profile to stay alive. But in the United States, I merely wanted not to be...

A 12-year-old 6th-grader in Hutchinson, Minn., committed to an unusually brave mission for the month of April: he intended to wear T-shirts with a pro-life message to his middle school every day for a month. His courage, however, was met with resistance. According to the boy's attorney, his principal and teachers told him "not to wear the T-shirts, publicly singled him out for ridicule in front of his classmates, removed him from class, sent him to the principal's office, forced him to turn his pro-life T-shirt inside out, and threatened him with suspension if he did not stop wearing the...

BLOOMER, Wis. - A new Marine who's graduating from Bloomer High School this month won't be able to wear his military uniform during the commencement ceremony.

Durango High School will allow its highest-performing students to wear white robes at graduation, reversing an earlier decision to require all students to wear red robes. Principal Diane Lashinsky said she had learned "a great deal" from the controversy over graduation robes. Lashinsky decided several months ago that all students would wear red robes at the May 24 graduation ceremony, ending a tradition where students with grade-point averages of 4.0 or greater wear honorary white robes. Lashinsky said she felt the white gowns "diminish the accomplishment and hard work of other graduates by relative comparison." Her decision caused an uproar...

Whitehouse, OH (LifeNews.com) -- High school students in a Toledo suburb were threatened with having to skip prom and other senior graduation events if they didn't remove their pro-life T-shirts. A group of students had planned to draw attention to the destruction of human life in abortion until school officials got upset. The students wore matching T-shirts with the message, "Abortion is homicide" but the April 21st coordinated event drew the ire of school administrators.Kristen Norman told WTOL-TV the Anthony Wayne High School students were ready to stand up for their free speech rights until school officials kept adding more...

Security has been increased at a Simpsonville middle school after a student was arrested and suspended for wearing a T-shirt with a noose and a reference to the Ku Klux Klan. Greenville television station WYFF said some students at Bryson Middle School stayed home Friday, fearing violence after the T-shirt worn by an eighth-grader angered both black and white students the day before. The student lifted another shirt revealing the racist T-shirt in the lunchroom. The student has been charged with disturbing school and recommended for expulsion.

LANCASTER, Pa. -- The family of a middle school student who was given detention for wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of a gun has filed a federal freedom of speech lawsuit against the school district. Donald Miller III, 14, went to Penn Manor High School in December wearing a T-shirt he said was intended to honor his uncle, a U.S. Army soldier fighting in Iraq. The shirt bears the image of a military sidearm and on the front pocket says "Volunteer Homeland Security." On the back, over another image of the weapon, are the words "Special issue Resident Lifetime...

PARMA, Ohio -- A kindergarten student with a freshly spiked Mohawk haircut has been suspended by school authorities who said the hair was a distraction for other students. Michelle Barile, the mother of 6-year-old Bryan Ruda, said nothing in the Parma Community School handbook prohibits the haircut, characterized by closely shaved sides with a strip of prominent hair on top. "I understand they have a dress code. I understand he has a uniform. But this is total discrimination," she said. "They can't tell me how I can cut his hair." An administrator at the suburban Cleveland charter school first warned...

A pair of Albany teenagers suspended for "gang-related behavior" because they were wearing crucifixes say they were only wearing gifts from their mothers. Jaime Salazar, 14, his friend Marco Castro, 16, were suspended from South Albany High School recently after they refused to put away the crucifixes they were wearing around their necks. Salazar said Principal Chris Equinoa saw his necklace and told him to put it away. "I was like, why?" Salazar said. "He says it's related to gangs." Salazar said he argued and was sent to the office. Instead, he went home. Later, he received a note saying...

Some students want the school administration to ban the Confederate battle flag outright, even if its presence is mainly limited at this point to small decals, belt buckles or cell phone screens kept by a small number of students... Senior Megan Allen said she's gotten about 300 of the school's roughly 1,500 students and about 20 teachers to sign her petition calling for school officials to ban the flag on campus,

Attorneys for a Neuqua Valley High School student from Bolingbrook fighting the school's ruling that he cannot wear an anti-gay T-shirt are hoping the third time will be the charm. Twice, Neuqua sophomore Alexander Nuxoll of Bolingbrook has filed for an injunction that would suspend "the school's policy that allows speech in favor of homosexual conduct, but bans speech critical of homosexual conduct," said his attorney, the Alliance Defense Fund's Jonathan Scruggs. And twice now courts have denied that request. Now, Nuxoll and his legal counsel are set to seek an appeal of these decisions. "We hope to have an...

ANDERSON, Ind. -- A couple whose lawsuit challenging a school district's new dress code was rejected has been ordered by a federal judge to pay nearly $41,000 in court costs. Laura and Scott Bell's lawsuit was thrown out by U.S. District Judge John D. Tinder in August after the couple missed critical deadlines and pressed claims he deemed frivolous. Now, Tinder has ordered the couple to pay Anderson Community Schools the $40,931 the district says its law firm charged for defending the couple's lawsuit in July and August. "It's flat ridiculous," said Laura Bell, noting that the amount is more...