Bob Jones High School in Huntsville will update its dress code to remove a discriminatory rule regarding religion in next year’s policy.
A concerned local resident reported that the current student dress code prohibits students from wearing “T-shirts, clothing, or other personal items bearing a reference to alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, drugs, drug-related slogans, death, the occult . . .”
“The occult” is commonly used — often derisively — to refer to certain neo-pagan belief systems (e.g. Wicca), as well as the various forms of Satanism, FFRF Legal Fellow Chris Line points out.
“The district cannot permissibly draw a distinction between student religious expression based on which religion they choose to express,” Line wrote to Madison City Schools’ attorney.
The district’s attorney has assured FFRF that the school’s policy has been updated to be consistent with the current systemwide dress code as set out in the school board’s policy and that the discrepancy will be remedied in the handbook for the 2019-20 school year.
