James Herndon, a practicing Wiccan, plans to return to class with makeup, (photo: San Bernadino Sun)
Posted on 04/14/2005 12:23:55 PM PDT by Nice50BMG
Wiccan boy booted
for wearing lipstick
Student claiming discrimination, violation of free-expression right
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
James Herndon, a practicing Wiccan, plans to return to class with makeup, (photo: San Bernadino Sun) |
A California high-school student who practices Wiccan beliefs says his rights have been violated after being suspended this week for wearing lipstick and makeup.
"If I can't wear makeup, then the girls or the staff can't wear makeup either," 16-year-old James Herndon told the San Bernadino Sun, believing his constitutional right to free expression is being violated.
He says the cosmetics help him express his neopagan religious beliefs in the supernatural, which he shares with his mother, Valerie Wallace, a Wiccan priestess.
"After my divorce from his father, he became very depressed, and wearing the makeup makes him feel good," Wallace said.
Herndon, who is repeating his sophomore year, has reportedly been wearing the black lipstick and red eye makeup the entire time he's been attending Pacific High School. He also sports a red mohawk hairdo, though that was not cited as a reason for his five-day suspension.
While campus officials say James' makeup is a violation of policy, they had a hard time locating it in writing, unable to cite any reference to makeup in school regulations or the California Education Code.
They tied the suspension to the dress code in the student handbook, which notes if clothing "creates a safety hazard ... or when the dress constitutes a serious and unnecessary distraction to the learning process or tends to disrupt campus order," the student is in violation.
Lynda Savage, a San Bernardino City Unified School District board member, told the paper "without knowing all the details, my gut reaction is to support the principal. We don't suspend students just because. I suspect this student was a distraction to other students. We bend over backwards to provide our students better educational choices. I think this student needed to make a better choice."
But the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union disagrees, believing codes protecting freedom of expression and guarding against gender discrimination seem to have been violated.
"High school is the time where many students are expressing themselves and really finding themselves and so to suspend the student is such a severe punishment it's wrong," said ACLU staff attorney Christine Sun. "It's wrong not only as a legal matter, but it's not good policy."
James plans on wearing the makeup when he returns to class on Monday.
"My son shouldn't change the way he is," his mother said.
Just to be clear this is no honor student.
C'mon admit it. He's Ronald McDonald's love child.
Another democrat voter in the making...
jeez what a poor mixed up kid. He desperately needs an authority figure in his life.
For some reason I don't think that pic has anything to do with professional wrestling...
He looks like the offspring of a woodpecker and one of the Village People.
"My son shouldn't change the way he is," his mother said.
Should say, 'the way I made him'.
Dorky looking moonpie.
A shame that my homeschooled kids won't be able to socialize with this lost soul.
I would recommend sports to the young man, rather than makeup. It's cheaper, for one thing.
(P.S. Mom's a loser!)
ok so now the MSM is spinning the story from "boy wearing makeup" into "wiccan wearing makeup".
Translation: They were going to loose the makeup argument so now they are morphining it into a freedom of religion argument.
Idiot mother.
Moron child.
ACLU whackjobs.
"Would you like to biggy-size that?" in the future.
I think "Hawk" and "Animal" are relatives...LOL!
SOMEBODY PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!
Make the punk a deal: If he commits the whole Constitution to memory he can wear whatever the heck he wants.
Just another Punk Rocker.
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