Jay,
Well, I too agree that it is silly to prohibit a child from wearing a rosary. As you point out: “Ruling in favor of the students, the Supreme Court in Tinker held…students may not be required to express only those sentiments that are officially approved.”
Sadly, there was the woefully decided BongHit4Jesus case in which the Supreme Court decided to do away with free speech of Americans. I never will understand that ruling, a complete load of garbage. Of course, that is what you get with a bunch of religious/government totalitarians on the court.
I don’t believe any student should ever be censured for wearing any message, it is not our government’s right to allow only approved thoughts. Of course, this would include any student wearing a tee-shirt that says “I Heart Jesus” or “Jesus Sucks”, both messages being equal. I also do not approve of prohibiting students from wearing “gang wear”, it is gang behavior that needs to be prohibited, not some vague mode of dress. As long as you support total freedom for all people and not just personal messages or displays that meets your particular standards for approval we are in agreement.
Finally, we have done this thing all wrong. Our standard practice is that if a student were to sit quietly wearing a shirt with a provocative message and then other students became disruptive, we punish the bearer of the provocative message. The real infraction is being in so little control of oneself in public that one reacts inappropriately to a simple written message. Just because someone displays or speaks a message we don’t like, we never have the right to lose our civility. We should toss out of class anyone who can’t handle free speech, they can be admitted back to school when they learn to control themselves.

That is abolutely riduclous suspending a student for wearing a rosary! It is in no way gang related!! This is as ridiculous as prohibiting students from wearing clothes with the American flag. The article states that the student had been wearing his rosary for nearly a year “without incident.”

Actually, where I live lots of the gang members in the schools wear rosaries in their colors. The rosary isn’t meant to be worn as a necklace and isn’t a piece of jewelry, and these gang members wear it as such. I’m for the right of everyone to wear whatever they want, but the school is right in that the unfortunately these days the rosary can be a symbol of gang membership.

“school officials in Schenectady said the Rosary violated school policy – comparing it to a gang symbol.”
## Which it is, but only because its religious use is historically earlier than its use by members of gangs, who have adopted for their own purposes what is still a purely religious artefact, namely, one used for prayer.
That members of gangs use it for their purposes no more makes it non-religious, than the use of the Holy Name of Jesus as a curse-word make It a curse-word, & not that Name.
FWIW, the Rosary is quite commonly worn around the neck, for religious purposes – even in the US.

My God, let this kid have his rosary and let him wear it to school. If it brings him half the peace and strength it has me over the years it will be a great blessing not only to him but to those around him.

I wonder Jay, if you’d even bother to speak out were the student denied the right to wear a symbol or clothing of any other religion. Doubt it.

Folks, if Raymond was wearing a rosary then there might be a case, but I am not of the trusting type and I will have to question this case until I see the rosary and find out where Raymond got it.

Come on Jay, this is not about one student’s religious beliefs. This is about who is in charge here — school rules or a 13-year-old who thinks he can sue the school. The School District is not telling him he can’t memorialize his brother and uncle by wearing the beads. He just can’t wear the beads outside his shirt contrary to school rules. They didn’t expel him for wearing the beads; they expelled him for refusing to put them under his shirt. This is just another case where some so-called Christian wants special treatment. Whether it’s a bigoted group of law students or a misguided 13-year-old, Christians are not entitled to circumvent the same rules every other student has to abide by.
The First Amendment clearly precludes the government at any level from respecting an institution of religion. You’d better hurry up and get this to the Supreme Court where there is a substantial percentage of Roman Catholic justices. It will be a good way to find out if the Supreme Court justices answer first to the Constitution or the Pope.
What part of “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” do you not understand?

Jay,
I’ve been following your career since the early CBN days — I’ve always been a fan — but last night was the first time I ever posted a comment here. Like so many other readers, I could not believe the absurdity of this case, but then I did a quick search using the phrase “rosary gang” and started to see this in a whole different light.
I included the best link with my comment, but I suppose this sort of comment rather disrupts the vibe you’re trying to create. It reminds me of a talk radio station I once listened to where listeners were allowed to make reactionary comments but weren’t allowed to cite any references or read any quotations.
I’ll run both sides of the story — it’s called ‘balance’ — on my own blog on Wednesday.

I am a teacher in the public school system.
People – do your homework!
Gangs wear the rosary daily to identify themselves. They are in the colors of red or blue depending on which gang they are in.
Think about it! Catholics do not wear the rosary as jewelry!
Gangs are taking over and ACLJ is encouraging gang activity.
Please do the research. Only the gangs are wearing the rosary.

I’d like to remind us that symbols change meaning over periods of time, and from culture to culture.
It was not very long ago that Jay and mine ancestors were discriminated against, tortured and killed by nice religious folks using this symbol as their rallying point.
And then I remember that history has a way of repeating itself.

When I was a student in a Catholic school the rosary was of course important, but it was never worn visibly. Raymond could easily keep it under his shirt. The school’s interest in suppressing anything resemblng gang activity is overriding. Raymond’s mother seems to be itching for a fight. There is nothing in Catholic tradition that requires wearing the rosary outside the shirt. It is so uncommon that the other kids would not understand. Even other Catholic kids would find it strange. — Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

If I was in a gang and had some form of executive control over gang dress code I would change required gang clothing each month. This way the gang would stay well ahead of school dress prohibitions. By the time a school could identify the clothes or insignia of the month and then swing their bureaucracy into motion, a month would have passed and I would have declared new gang clothing.

As far as the rosary is coscerned, well if people want to put them outside of their shirts, I don’t have a problem with it….There is nothing offensive to me about a rosary being outside of a shirt….I think they give people comfort….cc

I’ll tell you about social graces, that is when you consider what the other person has been through instead of gossiping behind their back and acting like they are the problem…..I already said, I had post trauma and especially when others aproached me from the back and pull on my shoulder and slander me in public record right in front of my face like that was a respectable quality to exhibit….When you approach people respectably you approach them in front and say hi, not from the back when I explained that is how I was victimized….cc
Yes, victimized….so, don’t pretend like you were this innocent culprit in all of this….I am kind…I was hurt and hurt again…and no, showing up in court behind my back on surprise to slander me in public is in fact what it is…….slandering me in public, so no that is not the behavior that I would care to respect in an individual…..I am certainly not talking about those who came to support me through it….I was diagnosed with post trauma, so I am getting better at it when others approach me, and yes I know that you were there and I do remember alot….So, to act like I am an idiot is in fact that….It just doesn’t solve anything when others bring girls in front of me especially past and present relationships and exspect like that I am supposed to be ennamered….especially those they have slept with or have had some sort of relationship with….So, that doesn’t cut it…Sorry to make this public in writing, it is just that it has happened so many times with so many past relationships, that I am quite frankly, disgusted by it, and it hurt me terribly….cc
p.s. And this does not mean for the girlfriends of my past relationships to come up and rub the fact that they are with my past relationship in front me as being a good idea or comforting. In fact it is quite the opposite……cc

Thanks again, but I will not be having anymore of your trauma for the day…..cc

Abuse is what it is, abuse….cc

Rich: “I also do not approve of prohibiting students from wearing “gang wear”, it is gang behavior that needs to be prohibited, not some vague mode of dress”
See, that’s my natural sentiment too, but I eventually have to yield to the right and requirement of school personnel to deal appropriately with a given situation (given what we’re tasking them with!). If the schools knew, or should have known, that he was wearing a gang message and did nothing, and he (or anyone else) got hurt as a result; they might be liable in court for not properly safe-guarding their responsibilities. Bizarre, I know, but I betcha that’s about the size of it.

Sometimes, I can’t believe how accusatory the rich get about how people get into debt, while they sit by and quitly pick out another designer outfit to wear, while their friends go down the tubes…
It is amazing to me people with so much money, need more and more for themselves, while they don’t help out a friend…, or even give them a job for pete sakes to pay for it…..So, money does not impress me, especially when it is attached to people who give conditional love…
A sence of control, if it were…..I care and for the people who want to get out of debt, I hope they do. Debt is not fun, it can be like a dark lurking clowd which hangs over your head….like a noose around your neck, where you feel like you can not breath…..who needs that, don’t you want to live….living pay check to pay check does not cut it, especially when you have a whole bunch of debt to pay off. So, you have to think out of the box, other ways to pay for it….if you can think of something different then you are doing right not, don’t give up your day job by any means, never give up on your dream and go for the opportunity…..cc
p.s. Don’t get me wrong, you still need to shop for things which you need, but for those who need the basic needs of life, try and help out some, instead of taking it in all for yourself….

quietly
quietly
quietly
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Don’t get me wrong, I proofread after I post, so if you think I was trying to get your approval on my writings, well I am not….For if I wanted to impress you, I would write them down on a piece of paper and recopy and make sure all the spelling errors were corrected and punctuated properly….cc

now
now
now
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Take your spelling errors and you know what to do with it, give it to your secretary…..cc

I believe that by attacking the rosary and relating it to a gang is to equate the symbol of prayer with violent activity. This is a baby step toward the larger goal of the current administration, and those like minded at the local level, of banning public prayer altogether, both collectively and individually. I have been a Catholic Christian all my life and only now do I appreciate the powerful impact that praying the rosary has on my life. The message at Fatima shows those who profess Christ will experience persecution. Bring it on.

Yes, they will, and I do…It is no fun…So, we however have to stick to the good fight and hold our head up high for we know who we are in Christ….those who don’t believe, think this is just a stupid, self-righteous act…, which it is quite the opposite…For righteousness does not come from man, but through his sacrifice on the cross for our cleansing of our sins… So basically admitting that we can not do it on our own merits…..For those who keep on doing the evil deeds, well they have a high price to pay on that ticket…, so let me just say I will not be dining with you today….cc

What you didn’t like that one either….What is wrong with you?
So, you still want to bring in the alternative of killing children by proxy, eh?
What is your problem?
And you think a smile and a hand shake cuts it?
Or, do you somehow think at the white pearly gate, that your educational tassel will get you into one of those white robes of His?
Nope, depart from me, I never knew you?
For there will be lovers of themselves….

cc

Even if a gang had a color of indigo, and they decided to wear indigo, does not necessarily indicate that the rosary indigo beads around their neck are not of their faith…..
Would you not want to encourage a sense of faith in a gang member anyway?….For instance, if a Latino was a gang member, and he just so happened to be catholic, maybe that rosary gives him a sense of self-worth in his religious beliefs…., a place to belong. It does not indicate that they are going to go out and deal drugs, or gang bang…cc

As a teacher and a father of a Catholic son, I can see both sides to this issue, but there has to be some leeway given to the school boards. The schools, as was posted earlier, have a charge to ensure the safety of the students. In doing so, they have shown that some Hispanic gangs are using the Rosary, specifically the colors of the beads, to identify a certain gang. just like in the “Bong Hits for Jesus” case, the Supreme Court held that the school’s mission of providing a drug-free environment allowed the principal to curtail the student’s free speech rights. Does not the same principle apply here. Protecting the student body from harm allows them to ban an item (at least from being visibly seen) to ensure that gang’s do not openly show and intimidate other pupils? This is what was done when school’s banned bandannas and other items that gangs were using to show affiliation. If cases like this are allowed to stand, then any person or group can modify their dress using religious symbols and claim that it is their right. Also to the posters that thinks this has to do with politics, you are sadly misinformed and need to do more research.

It would be helpful for The Court to issue guiding statements of Constitutionality. Since they don’t, everyone has to guess at, and occasionally backtrack on, what is acceptable behavior and legislation until it has been directly ruled upon.
Kelly is right, this ruling is confusing and difficult to reconcile with prior findings.
But then, many court rulings have confused me. I never understood how somebody could be sued because a kid climbed their fence and drowned in their pool (now, it’s how high the fence must be in order to be considered pro-active ENOUGH); or because somebody poured the hot coffee in their own lap; or because a burglar got hurt during a burglary of their premises. Nobody can tell what legally proper and responsible behavior IS anymore.