Church of Body Modification
 

NC teen: Nose ring more than fashion, it's faith

RALEIGH, N.C. – 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 First Amendment 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_rel_piercing_church

This comment had me dying laughing. It's sad how ignorant people can be.

Why can't she just take the stud out while she's in school? I'm sure there are several of her peers who have piercings that do that.

I agree. Especially since it seems that the experience of getting the piercing is the spiritual one. I don't see the issue with taking it off for a few hours every day. Though on that note, why did the school make a big deal about it? It's hardly noticeable.

Since a court already ruled on a similar case, I bet she'll lose this fight.

I wear certain pieces of jewelry as an expression of my religion and it is my right to do so. However, when I'm at work, I will sometimes remove them for various reasons. If someone asked me to remove it because it was a religious symbol, I'd fight it. But if I were being asked because it's against the dress code, exactly what argument have I got?

If your religion doesn't require you to wear the thing all the time, then take it off when you're not supposed to be wearing it.

You usually can't take piercings out for more than an hour or so, they close really fast. But christian schools here usually only request they be covered up with skin-toned tape

An hour? Once they've healed?

My school let you get away with fishing line through the piercing in case it did need to be kept open.

She has the right to be home schooled with her nose ring intact.

Because of the kind of tissue involved, facial piercings never "heal". I've had my nose pierced for 6+ years and I still can't leave it out more than a couple hours. I can wear a clear stud, though.

Then pierce it again, and again, and again. It sounds like these people get close to their "God" by feeling the rush of getting a tattoo or piercing anyway, not necessarily rocking the jewelry.

I don't see her winning this one, because the school isn't forbidding her from getting piercings at all, they are just saying she can't wear them to school.

There goes her wish for being a normal teenager, she might as well look into a private school or home schooling.

What would happen if she had a tattoo?

Kids shouldn't be allowed to get tatted up; It's for their own good. That Hannah Montana tattoo would look really dumb when they get older :D

A little thing called make-up, a good foundation can cover up a tattoo

Ha!

You missed my point. And make-up won't cover it completely. And make-up over a tattoo ends up looking even trashier than the tattoo.