On 25-Jan-09 3:02, Shay wrote:
> The family are close friends.
> 
> Court Prohibits School from Punishing American Indian Student for His 
> Long Braids
> http://www.aclutx.org/article.php?aid=672

I do think that in this case the court did the right thing. But, this 
being p.o-t, I think I am allowed to make some remarks.
- I am not at all surprised by: After months of procedural maneuvers 
that the court viewed as "designed to make Plaintiffs' abandon their 
[exemption] request, or leave the district, rather than to seriously 

- There is a distinction between culture and faith. I think that this is 
more culture than faith (although not having studied this particular 
religion it is hard for me to judge). Even so, in this case culture 
should prevail over arbitrary school rules. I have probably written 
about this before, but for me this is a very fundamental discussion. Too 
often cultural expressions (head scarfs, female genital mutilation) are 
claimed to be religious in order to have them accepted in a host 
culture. We even had a religious 'leader' who claimed that he as a 
muslim was not allowed to shake hands with females and 'therefore' 
refused the hand of a minister. As long as we don't make the distinction 
between culture and religion anybody can make such things up to annoy 
others and get away with it because the others are not allowed to 
discriminate against a 'religion'.

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