Updated 10-9-2008
Needville ISD Violates State Law with Suspension of Five-Year-Old
HOUSTON, TX – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today sued to stop the Needville Independent School District (NISD) from punishing a five-year-old American Indian kindergarten student for practicing and expressing his family’s religious beliefs and heritage.
School officials have forced A. A. into isolated In-School Suspension because he and his family refuse to abide by a District mandate that he shove his long hair, part of his American Indian religious and cultural heritage, down the back of his shirt every day – a requirement that would cause the student shame, embarrassment and physical discomfort. After being granted a religious belief exemption from the district’s dress code that requires boys to have short hair, A.A.'s parents were informed he could keep his long hair only if he keeps it in a single, thick braid shoved down the back of his shirt at all times.
“The boy's parents have raised him to practice and be proud of his religion and culture as an American Indian, which includes wearing his uncut hair in two long braids,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of Texas. “NISD recognized that the boy's religious beliefs exempt him from the dress code requirement that boys have short hair, but the alternate policy they adopted for him is unlawful.”
The boy's parents, Kenney Arocha and Michelle Betenbaugh, have raised their son according to his father’s American Indian religious beliefs. Mr. Arocha and his son believe that one’s hair should only be cut for life-changing occasions, such as the death of a loved one. They believe their long hair is a sacred symbol of their own lives. The five-year-old’s hair has never been cut.
Nearly eight months after the parents first requested the exemption, and only after the family appealed the Board’s initial denial, did the district finally concede less than a week before school started that the student's long hair is part of his religious heritage and they cannot force him to cut it.
Yet instead of simply exempting him from that part of the dress code, NISD is requiring the boy to keep his thick, foot-long hair “tightly woven” into a single braid and stuffed down the back of his shirt at all times, and to re-prove his religious sincerity to NISD officials every school year.
The parents have refused to subject their son to this degrading and impracticable policy. His mother, Michelle Betenbaugh, said, “Asking a five-year-old to keep a foot of hair shoved down his shirt is not just humiliating, it is impractical and unhygienic in Houston’s sweltering climate.”
As punishment for non-compliance with its dress code policy, NISD has segregated the student from his kindergarten class and assigned him to In-School Suspension (ISS) every school day since Sept. 3. ISS is the harshest discipline the law permits for a child his age.
“NISD is trying to force our client and his parents to choose between practicing and expressing his religion and identity, and obtaining a public education,” said Fleming Terrell, Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Texas. “But Texas law and the First Amendment both prohibit the district from forcing parents and students to make this choice.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, charges that NISD’s actions violate Betenbaugh’s and Arocha’s rights to raise their son according to their family’s religion, heritage and identity, as well as the boy's constitutional and statutory rights to free exercise of religion and free expression. Courts have held that the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution protect students’ rights to dress in conformation with their religious beliefs. Texas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) provides additional protections.
“The Constitution protects the right of all people in this country to express their religious beliefs as they see fit,” said Daniel Mach, Director of Litigation for the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “The same law protects Catholic students who wear a rosary, Christian students who wear a cross, or Jewish students who wear a Star of David. Yet the school board has ignored this basic principle by punishing this young child’s expression of his faith and heritage.”
American Indians have for centuries been subjected to assimilationist policies intended to force them to conform. Young children, like A.A., are especially vulnerable to these efforts. “During the 19th and early 20th centuries, part of the egregious legacy of cultural repression against American Indians included removing their children to boarding schools where their hair was cut. They were punished for speaking their native language and forbidden from practicing their customary forms of worship. As a result, many Indians rejected their customary beliefs or denied their Indian identity and heritage altogether,” explained American Indian Studies professor Dr. James Riding In, who submitted a declaration in the lawsuit.
Dr. Riding In is a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and an associate professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University. He is the editor of Wicazo Sa Review: A Journal of Native American Studies. His research about repatriation as well as historical and contemporary Indian issues has appeared in various books and scholarly journals.
Lawyers on the case, Arocha v. Needville Independent School District, are Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of Texas; Fleming Terrell, Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Texas, and Daniel Mach, Director of Litigation for the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
For a copy of the complaint, memorandum in support of a temporary restraining order, click here.
For a copy of the preliminary injunction, click here.
Additional information about the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief can be found online at: www.aclu.org/religion/index.html
