Student Will Be Allowed To Wear Nose Stud In Settlement of Lawsuit

ACLU of North Carolina yesterday announced a settlement in a suit brought by a high school student who was suspended for wearing a small nose stud as an expression of her religious faith.  (See prior posting.) The Consent Order (full text) in Iacono v. Croom, (ED NC, June 6, 2011) provides that the student will be permitted to wear her nose stud as an expression of her religious faith. Also the school's policy on accommodation of religious beliefs will be modified so that in determining exemptions from provisions of the Dress Code the school will only look at whether a religious belief is sincerely held, and not also at whether the belief is central to a faith's religious doctrine