Student in dress code spat moves

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, Dec. 20, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.

A Liberty High School student whose refusal to follow the campus dress code led to a federal lawsuit has left Clark County for Winnemucca, and her father is citing the harassment and scrutiny that followed the controversy as reasons for her move.

Don Jacobs said his daughter, Kim Jacobs, was harassed by an adult in Liberty's parking lot, overheard unkind comments made by school employees and was treated as a "celebrity" by her peers.

"She wants to come back when things settle down but right now it's all too much," Don Jacobs said. "She needs to be able to do things a normal high school student gets to do and that's not going to happen here."

Kim Jacobs moved several weeks ago to live with her mother and is attending Lowry High School, Jacobs said. Unlike Liberty's dress code policy, which required students to wear khaki bottoms and red, white or blue shirts, Kim Jacobs may now wear her religious-themed T-shirts without fear of reprisal, her father said.

"The only good thing is she gets some of her freedom back," he said.

The Clark County School District has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the Nevada ACLU on behalf of Kim Jacobs and her father on the grounds that she has forfeited her standing in the case by withdrawing from school.

Allen Lichtenstein, attorney for the Nevada ACLU, said he will argue that Jacobs should be allowed to remain a party to the lawsuit. The fact that she has changed districts does not undo the harm she experienced while a student at Liberty, Lichtenstein said.

Bill Hoffman, senior counsel for the district, acknowledged that he expected the suit to go forward as the Nevada ACLU adds additional plaintiffs.

"I expect to see a revised motion soon," Hoffman said.

As the lawsuit demanded, Kim Jacobs' disciplinary record was expunged prior to her transfer, Hoffman said.

On Nov. 10, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt ordered the district to allow Jacobs -- who had been suspended for 25 days after wearing T-shirts with religious messages on them -- to return to class with no further discipline. District officials instructed principals at the 17 schools with similar dress code policies also not to punish students who failed to comply.

The Clark County School Board voted last month to revise its dress code regulation, allowing principals to set stricter policies for the 2005-06 academic year provided parents were surveyed and at least 51 percent showed support. The district's central office is conducting the surveys, which will be sent directly to parents and tabulated by Karlene McCormick-Lee, assistant superintendent of research and accountability.

So far a half-dozen students and their parents have asked to join the suit and motions to that effect will be filed this week, Lichtenstein said. The list includes Dwight Terry and his son, Dwight Terry Jr., who was pulled out of his honors English class and disciplined after wearing a shirt with a stripe on it to class at Chaparral High School.

There are also several parents of students attending elementary schools participating in the district's pilot study of mandatory uniforms that will join the suit, Lichtenstein said. The School Board determined those schools had properly surveyed parents before instituting the policies and would be allowed to continue uninterrupted, although new surveys would have to be conducted every four years.

Numerous complaints have come in about the manner in which the surveys are being conducted, said Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada ACLU. There have been reports of principals conducting "public relations campaigns" over loudspeakers and in school newsletters and parents not being properly informed of the pros and cons of uniforms, Peck said. There is also no information being handed out showing there have been no studies or research that definitively link uniforms to student achievement, Peck said.

"This is not an honest effort to get full participation from parents and students," Peck said.