Two schools ban Iron Cross jewelry, shirts

Monday, Sept. 8, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.

Centennial and Cimarron-Memorial high schools have issued an indefinite ban on jewelry and T-shirts depicting the Iron Cross, the military award that was popular in Germany.

Both schools issued the ban in the wake of reports that the symbol had been associated with the 311 Boyz, which has been classified by Metro Police as a street gang comprised of white youths from upper middle class Northwest Las Vegas families.

Nine members of the group, either present or former students at Centennial, have been indicted on 13 felony counts stemming from a rock beating of another youth and two of his friends, all Cimarron-Memorial students, at a July party.

Police also are investigating a string of summer crimes allegedly committed by the group.

"Our main concern is the safety of the students," said Billie Rayford, assistant Northwest Region superintendent for Clark County Schools. "The dress code allows us to address trends as necessary to determine if they are disruptive to the education process."

Because of its association with Nazis, the Iron Cross was already considered as potentially offensive to many, and concerns about the symbol have been heightened in the wake of the 311 Boyz criminal case, Rayford said.

"It (the Iron Cross) has been associated with gang activtiy be it validated or not," Rayford said, noting that the ban is in effect to protect both students who fear attack from people wearing that symbol and persons wearing the symbol from reprisals from people who are offended by it.

The school dress code reads in part that administrators can "prohibit slogans or advertising on clothing which by their controversial or obscene nature disrupt the educational setting."

Those rules already were the basis for prohibitions of spiked or studded clothing, frayed shorts, spaghetti strap tops or cropped tops that expose the stomach.