ACLU sues school over girl’s piercing

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C.

The American Civil Liberties Union claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that a North Carolina school violated the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old student by suspending her for wearing a nose piercing.

The lawsuit from the state chapter of the ACLU seeks a court order allowing Ariana Iacono to return to Clayton High School, which has kept her on suspension since classes started.

The complaint hinges on Iacono’s claim that her nose piercing isn’t just a matter of fashion but an article of faith. She and her mother, Nikki, belong to a small religious group called the Church of Body Modification, which sees tattoos, piercings and the like as channels to the divine.

The Johnston County school system has a dress code banning facial piercings and other items deemed distracting or disruptive.

But the dress code also allows for exemptions based on “sincerely held religious belief,” and says, “the principal or designees shall not attempt to determine whether the religious beliefs are valid, but only whether they are central to religious doctrine and sincerely held.”

The suit alleges officials repeatedly dismissed explanations of the Iaconos’ faith by the family and their minister.