ACLU adds 8-year-old to lawsuit against School District dress code

David Kihara

Friday, April 1, 2005 | 9:51 a.m.

The Nevada American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday added an 8-year-old student to a federal suit against the Clark County School District challenging the district's dress code.

The ACLU added the 8-year-old, a third grader at Walter V. Long Elementary School, to the suit after the district declined on Wednesday to exempt the student from the dress code.

The ACLU suit against the school district states that the dress code policy violates the constitutional rights of students by instituting a dress code. The ACLU of Nevada filed the original suit in October after former Liberty High School student Kim Jacobs was suspended for 25 days for wearing a T-shirt with a religious message on it.

The parents of the 8-year-old student, Donald and Wendy Dresser, who are self-described Baptists, sought to opt out of the mandatory dress code at the school because the uniform rule is not in keeping with their religious faith.

"We practice individualism in our faith -- we are taught in church that we need not wear certain clothing," Wendy Dresser said.

The Dressers have asked the district since January to excuse the 8-year-old from wearing the mandatory khakis and solid-colored shirt at Walter V. Long elementary school.

The Dresser's have another son who is also part of the ALCU suit, as are five other families. The Dresser's previously joined the lawsuit when the district turned down the Dresser's request to exempt that son from the dress code at Bridger Middle School.

The Dressers at that time also cited religious concerns for not observing the school's uniform code.

The Dresser's filed a Clark County School District "Application for Exemption from Mandatory Standard Student Attire" form on Jan. 25, asking that the 8-year-old be exempt from the Walter V Long Elementary School's dress code.

"No one can force uniformity onto a person. Our clothing does not define who we are," stated the request.

The district allowed the 8-year-old to not follow the dress code while his exemption was being considered until this week. On Monday, staff at Walter V. Long Elementary School began to cite the 8-year-old for dress-code violations before his case was decided, according to school warning letters sent to the Dressers.

On Wednesday, Paul Garbiso, Clark County School District assistant regional superintendent for the east region, wrote Wendy Dresser a letter stating that the 8-year-old had not complied with the student dress code and received a third warning on Wednesday.

The letter further stated that the 8-year-old was to comply with the dress code "until I have reviewed the documentation provided today and responded to your request in writing," the letter states.

On that same day, Garbiso declared that the 8-year-old's exemption case was denied, according to a copy of the declination letter.

"There are serious due process issues here," said Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, saying that the youth should not have been cited before the exemption was decided.

Garbiso on Thursday said he could not comment on the case because of the litigation.

Bill Hoffman, senior counsel for the Clark County School District, said he had not seen the revised lawsuit and could not comment on the addition of any plaintiff or allegations until he had an opportunity to review the filings.

Hoffman said he was familiar with the Dresser's situation, and it was his understanding that the family had been offered, and declined, the option of transferring their son to a campus that was not implementing the "standard student attire" policy.

"He has not been disciplined," said Hoffman.

Wendy Dresser, however, said that she did not want her son to be transferred to a different school because the policies of that unidentified school may change in the future to include a mandatory dress code.

"We don't feel that he should be moved and segregated" for not following the dress code on religious grounds, she said. Sun reporter Emily Richmond contributed reporting for this story.