A soft-spoken 14-year-old’s nose piercing has landed her a suspension from school and forced her into the middle of a fight over her constitutional right to exercise her religion. Ariana Iacono says she just wants to be a normal teenager at Clayton High School, about 15 miles southeast of Raleigh. She has been suspended since last week because her nose ring violates the Johnston County school system’s dress code.
“I think it’s kind of stupid for them to kick me out of school for a nose piercing,” she said. “It’s in the (constitution’s) First Amendment for me to have freedom of religion.”
Iacono and her mother, Nikki, belong to the Church of Body Modification, a small group unfamiliar to rural North Carolina, but one with a clergy, a statement of beliefs and a formal process for accepting new members.
If nothing else this has brought to our attention a new crackpot church. Huzzah!
So why is she not wearing her religeous adornments in this photo? I am assuming that this photo was not taken at school.
…and you won’t be allowed back, young lady, until it heals over!
Of course everybody should be allowed to do anything they want, anywhere they want, because it’s part of their religion.
It’s part of my religion to not pay for stuff – so can I shoplift without getting hassled by the police?
All I need for an officially recognized religion is a clergy (me), a statement of beliefs (what’s yours is mine) and a formal process for accepting new members (go steal something, but leave my crap alone). Sounds great! Do I get tax-exempt status from the IRS now?
Church of Body Modification? Outrageous!
I think I’ll start the Church of Beer Drinking in Public.
Chuck beat me to it. Let’s all just make up any religion and religious beliefs that suit our purposes and avoid any rules we wish. Then again that’s what religion is. It’s a set of beliefs that have no rational basis. Just a bunch of crap we make up and then decide to believe and insist that everyone respect. F this chick.
Obviously preposterous but this issue we face is not freedom OF religion, it’s freedom FROM religion.
I’m waiting for someone to establish the Church of Unclad Torsos
“We don’t worship the god of body modification or anything like that,” he said. “Our spirituality comes from what we choose to do ourselves. Through body modification, we can change how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about the world.”
Sounds like they meet the requirements of being nuts enough to have a religion.
I bet they wouldn’t allow the Church of the Dirty Sanchez do their thing at school either…
Sorry, this “church” just doesn’t pass the BS test.
I belong to the Church of Go As Fast As You Want To, but the traffic cops and judges keep violating my freedom of religion.
How about “In Piercing We Trust” on our money?
I think the “Piercing Bible” should be placed in the halls of congress too.
…and Harry Reid should get a Mexican flag tattoo on his bum.
What would people say or do if she wanted to come to school dressed in a full Nun’s outfit? And would it be ok to have her ears pierced, her navel as long as she never shows it, just not the nose?
Clayton is about 210 miles west of where I live. Less than 100 miles north and northwest, there are still churches that “handle” venomous snakes in their worship services.
Wow. Google there “””church””” and click on board of directors. Shows skin ‘stitched’ with hypodermic needle heads.
Nearer my odd to thee!
Bogus church or not, that little piece of jewelry is hardly noticeable let alone some sort of dress code violation.
Probably the school allows much more obvious pierced ears.
What a religious nose ring might look like:
In mildly related news from my hometown:
http://hickory.wbtv.com/content/mans-body-found-after-failed-burial-sea
bury your dead at sea, and then go fishing. Just remember to weight the body down.
People do have freedom of religion. Based on what was posted I’m not actually sure this meets the standard for a religion.
No deity.
Of course the courts have declared atheism to be a religion so…The case may actually define a few things.
The issue as much as anything might boil down to does this organization have enough members to convince a judge the entire thing isn’t a scam.
You’re ALL a bunchabigots! The point here, made in the link or not, is FREEDOM-in this case of religion. And what is FREEDOM except someone else doing something you don’t like? Religious nutbaggery should be “accommodated” when the STATE requires you to do something against your will ((eg-go to school)) it cannot strip you of all your other FREEDOM rights as well. As long as the religion is valid as here and the practice does not unreasonably interfere with the STATES permitted activity, then accommodation should follow.
You knuckle draggers crowing your disagreement with the exact belief in question need to think just a bit deeper. When you demand conformity, it will always bring your belief’s into question as well, unless you are just a mindless zombie.
Ok, nevermind.
What kind of WTF religion is that? I thought schools were about rules and learning and not about religion. That is what church is for. Sounds like a lame excuse.
“Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality, and anarchy as progress.”
>> If nothing else this has brought to our attention a new crackpot church.
Yeah, this church is so different from churches that eat and drink the body of their god weekly, or wear adornments with the image of their god dead from torture, or view allegorical writings as literal rules, or believe in eternal (as in never ever ending through forever) punishment for displeasing their god, or that blowing up innocent women and children is acceptable in the name of their god.
Yes, they are very different and obviously evil and should be banished.
As for me, I will just keep asking the great juju under the lake to bless me.
And just try sacrificing a virgin on the winter solstice and the school is all unreasonable.
They were only star trek fans anyway…..
#11 Well by that logic, there are NO churches that would pass that test.
They know how to handle this stuff in France don’t they?
What Bobbo said in #20.
Show me that the nose piercing interfered with the school’s ability to teach (which is probably limited, anyway) and I will support their “dress code.” Otherwise, leave the kids alone! Kids experiment, it’s part of the psychology of growing up.
As for the church? Well, the body mod is putting the hole in her nose. The ring is just decoration. Maybe what they want to do is start a new church called the Church of Body Adornment.
“freedom of religion” only applies to religions that can afford to have enough lawyers to sue your ass into the ground, if you don’t grant the followers request, however ridiculous it is. I’m sure the the Church of Body Modification runs on a shoe string budget, when it comes to their legal defense team. And their Congressional lobbyists. So…. it’s tough luck for the CBM.
Same goes for Snake Handlers. Their won’t be any snake handling going on in school. Unless it’s part of some biology class curriculum. Or some football rally, whose mascot is a snake. Because High School football is the only recognized religion in most schools. As they certainly devote enough time and money to it, for no appreciable progressive lesson plan. Other than learning to be addicted to an exhibition sport for the rest of one’s life. They might as well teach mixology, so we can all become alcoholics too.
@Chuck: Great point you got there!
Okay freedom it is, but not to the extent of abusing it and use it as an excuse for something or anything you would wish or want to happen. That kid should’ve respect the school rules just like how she shows respect to their “religion”.
I see no big issue here.
There are now so many people with piercings and tattoos that it is now common place in the US. I see 60+ year old women now with tatts. When grandma or great-grandma is getting tatts, what is a nose ring?
The only way now to be counter-culture is NOT to get tattooed or pierced.
Cursor_
#1.
She is.