U.S. judge rebuffs ACLU in school dress code dispute

Thursday, Nov. 4, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.

A federal judge has shot down an attempt by the Nevada ACLU to secure a temporary restraining order against the Clark County School District on behalf of a student who was thrown out of school for wearing T-shirts with religious messages.

In his written response denying the motion, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt said the Nevada ACLU failed to show that "irreparable injury" would result if the emergency order was not granted. Additionally, Hunt said there was "no evidence of notice to defendants."

Allen Lichtenstein, attorney for the Nevada ACLU, said the school district's senior counsel, Bill Hoffman, was personally served with the filing Thursday. As the law requires, a certificate of notice was filed with the court at that time, Lichtenstein said.

"The denial of the TRO (temporary restraining order) appears to have been based on an inaccurate or incomplete reading of our papers by the court," said Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada ACLU.

Hunt did determine that sufficient evidence existed to warrant a hearing on the request for a preliminary injunction. The two sides will meet in Hunt's courtroom next Tuesday.

In an emergency motion filed last week, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction were necessary to protect the rights of Liberty High School junior Kim Jacobs. Liberty school officials have told Donald Jacobs his daughter may not return to the campus and referred her to the district's academic center for habitual offenders.

Kim Jacobs, an honor student, was disciplined after her father refused to have her comply with Liberty's "standard school attire" requirements, which mandate that students wear khaki-colored bottoms and solid-colored shirts in red, white or blue. She was suspended for a total of 25 days after showing up at school in shirts bearing quotations from the Book of Mormon.

The scheduled court hearing "will be too late to undo some of the irreparable harm Kim and her family have suffered since the initial filing of our lawsuit," Peck said. "Each day compounds the harm she has already suffered and increases the amount of damages the district will have to pay."

The Clark County School Board is considering requiring principals to get support from parents before instituting dress code policies that are more strict than the district-wide regulations. A second vote on the proposed changes is slated for Nov. 18.

Several School Board members have said publicly that they didn't want to see students kept from class because of a failure to comply with the stricter dress code policies being enforced at more than two dozen campuses.

Clark County School Board President Susan Brager-Wellman said she was "dismayed" by the ACLU's filing and had hoped the lawsuit would be held off until the new regulations were approved. There may still be compromise that satisfies all sides, Brager-Wellman said.