ACLU expands lawsuit against school dress code

Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

The Nevada ACLU has filed an amended complaint adding five families to a federal lawsuit challenging the Clark County School District's dress code policy.

The new plaintiffs include parents of two students at Glen Taylor Elementary School in Henderson, one of nine campuses participating in a pilot study of mandatory uniforms.

The amended complaint, accepted by the federal court clerk's office Tuesday, claims the district's uniform policies "violate the freedom of speech, establishment of free exercise of religion, equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution."

The complainants include Donald and Wendy Dresser, who allege they were told by school officials that their religious opposition to the dress code policy would not exempt their son from participating. Wendy Dresser said she was told her son could not attend Bridger Middle School, where he is enrolled in the science and technology magnet program, if he did not follow the "Dress for Success" policy.

The Clark County School Board voted unanimously last month to revise the dress code policy, requiring schools to survey parents prior to establishing requirements more strict than the districtwide standard. Schools that showed at least 55 percent of survey respondents favored mandatory uniform policies would be allowed to require certain colors, fabrics and styles of clothing. High schools would be allowed to ban blue jeans.

Surveys went out last week to families of students at 14 schools that had implemented such policies without first consulting parents. Schools that meet the 55 percent threshold will be allowed to resume the mandatory requirements when the new semester begins Jan. 24, said Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction for the district.

Under the revised regulation, parents opposed to the stricter dress code would be allowed to seek zoning variances to schools without "standard student attire" policies. But there is no guarantee that space would available to all students who sought transfers and the district would not provide transportation.

The nine elementary schools in the pilot study were allowed to continue their mandatory policies uninterrupted, after School Board members determined families had already been appropriately surveyed. Lona Finley, whose son attends one of the schools in the pilot study, Glen Taylor Elementary in Henderson, said she joined the federal lawsuit in the hopes of forcing the district to revise its policy.

"I have the right to a free education for my son and I'm also required by law to send him to school," Finley said. "If I have to go out and buy certain clothing in certain colors, or else rip him away from his neighborhood friends and drive him to another school who knows how far away, then I would say my rights and his rights have been taken away."

Dwight Terry Jr., who was pulled from his Advanced Placement English class at Chaparral High School, allegedly because his shirt had a stripe on it, has joined the ACLU complaint, along with his father. Also joining the complaint is Lynn Rose, who opposes the "Dress for Success" policy at Garside Junior High School, where her daughter is a student.

The original complainant, former Liberty High School student Kimberly Jacobs, remains a party to the lawsuit even though she has left Clark County for her mother's home in Winnemucca.

Her father, Donald Jacobs, said his daughter decided earlier this month to transfer to Lowry High School because of harassment and unwelcome attention that followed her public battle against the campus dress code.

Jacobs was suspended for a total of 25 days after she refused to swap T-shirts bearing religious messages for the solid-colored red, white or blue shirts and khaki bottoms required at Liberty.

Bill Hoffman, senior counsel for the Clark County School District, said Tuesday the addition of plaintiffs does not affect his motion seeking to have Jacobs removed from the suit on the grounds that she is no longer a student at Liberty and therefore no longer affected by the dress code policy.