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News Story 2: Stacy Carol

Leaguetown High School will hold a disciplinary hearing for Stacy Carol on April 10 due to lip
jewelry that she wears because of her religion.

Stacy Carol was suspended for three days for not taking her piercing out. After still having it on
when she returned, she was sent to In School Suspension and has been there for the past 9
school days. Carol says her First Amendment Right to exercise her religion is being violated.
Leaguetown High School’s dress code includes no piercings except for women’s ears and no
hats or head wear, although two Muslims have exemptions so they can wear their hijabs.

Stacy is an above average kid and says she doesn’t deserve this. She wants to be back in her
classes, but refuses to let her First Amendment Right be taken away from her. Stacy and her
mother both joined the church over the winter break. They meet at the ministers house every
Sunday.
“We don’t worship a tattooed god or anything like that. Our spirituality comes from what we
choose to do to ourselves,” Stacy Carol said. “Through body modification, we can change how
we see ourselves and the world around us.”

Stacy’s mom, Lareina Carol, has been involved in this, too. She said she is grateful that the
ACLU has agreed to help them. She is supportive of the choices Stacy has made, even though
it has caused a great deal of trouble.
“I asked Stacy if she wanted to back down and take out the lip jewelry, but she believes in our
church and in our freedom,” Mrs. Carol said. “She wants to stand up for herself and for that, I
am proud.”

Sonia Stevens is an ACLU lawyer. She is helping Stacy and Lareina. She believes Stacy has a
solid case and that it would be in the schools best interest to let Stacy continue to wear her lip
jewelry.
“The district doesn’t have much to stand on since it already has two religious exemptions on
file,” Stevens said. “It will be hard pressed to defend that in court.”

Parker Gordon is the superintendent at Leaguetown High School. He believes that they
designed a dress code plan to show off their school in a good way and that was appropriate for
the district. The school claims to have a dress code to have order and discipline in the schools.
“We want our students to understand expectations in dress,” Gordon said. “Employers have
dress code. We are modeling the business world with our expectations.”

Constitutional lawyer, Jett Ramirez, says that First Amendment violations are common and that
freedom of religion is a big one. He says that the school district should still hold their ground. He
believes the courts will see the absurdity in this.
“Most Americans would be surprised to learn just how little protection the First Amendment
provides for religious-freedom claims under current law,” Ramirez said. “The U.S. Supreme
Court seriously weakened the reach of the free-exercise clause in 1990 by ruling that
government no longer must show a ‘compelling state interest’ before denying a religious
exemption to an otherwise neutral, generally applicable law.”
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News Story 2: Stacy Carol