Boy wins fight over right to wear a skirt to
school
From Tom Baldwin in Washington
A BAN on a New Jersey schoolboy wearing flowery skirts to school
has been overturned after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
claimed his rights were being violated.
At first, Michael
Coviello only wanted to bend the uniform code at Hasbrouck Heights
High School by donning shorts, which he had started wearing because
of a knee injury.
But he was told that district policy prohibited shorts in
winter.
He sought a meeting with Joseph Luongo, the school superintendent,
and argued that it was unfair that girls were allowed to expose
their legs and he was not. The superintendent suggested that if he
felt that way, he should dress like a girl.
Michael, 17, a drummer in the school band and a member of the golf
team, called his bluff and went shopping.
He went to the mall and bought three skirts adorned with flowers
and started wearing them to school. On the third day, the
principal, Peter OHare told him that his clothing was disruptive
and that he could be sent home.
Unlike those fighting to keep their headscarves on at school in
France or Shabina Begum, the 16-year-old British girl who won a
High Court battle to keep on her head-to-toe jilbab, Michaels
mother decided that she wanted to help her son expose more not
less of his body. She contacted the ACLU, which usually devotes
its energy to fighting the Bush Administration on wiretaps and
imprisonment without trial of terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay.
She said: If Michael wants to protest not being allowed to wear
shorts, then he should have that right, she said. And now he
shouldnt be told not to wear skirts.
Last week, the Coviellos, an ACLU representative and school
administrators crafted a compromise: Michael is still not allowed
to wear shorts, but he can wear a skirt.
This is the right outcome, Jeanne LoCicero, an ACLU lawyer, said
in a written statement which hit out at a senseless,
discriminatory school policy.
Glenn Ruroede, the vicepresident of the school board, said that he
was not surprised by the students protest.
Kids want to challenge the code, he said. You still get kids
every day challenging the right to wear baseball caps.
Michael now chooses from among his three skirts and a kilt as his
daily outfit. He wears them with T-shirts featuring heavy-metal
bands, such as Metallica or Slipknot, or funny sayings, he
said.
His is not the only case of its kind. Nathan Warmack, a student at
Jackson High School in Missouri, was barred from a school dance
because he was wearing a kilt. The actions prompted outrage among
the the many Americans who claim Scottish descent and an internet
petition was signed by more than 10,000 supporters. Nathan has now
received an apology from school officials.
