米ロサンゼルス：米女子中学生、制服着用強要の学校を提訴

米女子中学生、制服着用強要の学校を提訴
2005年 12月 15日 木曜日 15:27 JST

　［ロサンゼルス　１４日　ロイター］　米カリフォルニア州ロサンゼルス在住の１３歳の女子中学生が学校に制服着用を強要され、人権を侵害されたとして、学校を提訴した。

　ドゥアン・ランドさんは、学区条約により制服着用の拒否が認められているにもかかわらず、青色のスカートと白いブラウスの着用を強要されたという。

　ランドさんは１３日、ロサンゼルス地裁で｢学校に行くのが怖いときもあった｣と証言。祖父に書いてもらった制服着用の免除を求める手紙を学校職員に丸められ、地面に投げ捨てられたことや、私服で登校した際、職員に腕をつかまれ、事務所に引っ張り込まれたこともあると語り、学校職員にいやがらせを受け、恥をかかされただけでなく、暴力的な扱いを受けたこともあると主張した。

　ランドさんは学校に対し、制服着用を強要しないことと、人権侵害、精神的苦痛と暴力行為を受けたことに対する賠償金を要求している。

L.A. girl, 13, fights school uniform in court
Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:11 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 13-year-old Los Angeles girl who refuses to wear a school uniform has taken her fight to court, charging that school officials violated her civil rights by demanding she wear the blue skirt and white blouse.

Duan'ne Land claims that she has been harassed, humiliated and even "battered" by staff at Horace Mann Middle School despite a Los Angeles Unified School District policy that allows students to opt out of wearing a uniform.

"From time to time I was afraid of going to school because of what was going to happen next," Land told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury during her testimony on Tuesday. "But later on there was less messing with me."

Land said that when she gave an administrator a note from her grandfather asking to be excused from wearing a uniform the man "wadded it up and threw it on the ground." She said another staff member once grabbed her by the arm and yanked her into an office for wearing street clothes.

The teen's lawsuit seeks to bar the school from disciplining her over the uniform issue, along with unspecified monetary damages for violation of her civil rights, infliction of emotional distress and battery.

Lawyers for the district concede that students have the right to decline a uniform, but say Land never made it clear that she was doing so and was not mistreated. They say she was never kept out of school or sent home.

During opening statements in the trial on Tuesday, Land's lawyer said that after the girl stopped wearing her uniform, staff members threatened to suspend her, refused to allow her picture to be taken for the yearbook and barred her from a Valentine's Day dance.

According to the lawsuit, administrators also frequently detained her at the principal's office and twice stood her against a wall and scolded her.

"The wrongdoing alleged herein has interfered with plaintiff's education and denied her civil rights in violation of the State Education Code, state Constitution, and the Constitution of the United States," the lawsuit charges.

The trial, which continued on Wednesday with testimony expected from the school principal, was scheduled to last five days.


Posted on Wed, Dec. 14, 2005
LA teen claims she was harassed for not wearing school uniform
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - The grandfather of a 13-year-old girl who claims she was harassed because she refused to wear her blue-and-white school uniform testified Wednesday that he repeatedly told school officials that she was opting out of the voluntary policy.

Frank Canada told a Superior Court jury that he did not buy the white top and navy-blue skirt because he didn't think it was necessary. He testified that he told administrators that Daun'ne Land wasn't going to wear the uniform and made a note for her indicating their stance.

"I figured that that should stop them from harassing her," he said.

The girl testified Tuesday in Superior Court that she thought the outfit was ugly and made her look like everyone else.

Although Los Angeles Unified School District policy says that wearing a school uniform is voluntary, the girl alleged that during her 2003-04 year at Horace Mann Middle School she was accosted for not having one. She was 10 at the time.

"They decided to turn a voluntary program into a compulsory one," her attorney, David Durchfort, said in his opening statement.

The girl testified that an administrator wadded up a note from her grandfather saying that she did not want to wear the uniform; that twice a school security guard ordered her to stand against a wall for failing to have a uniform; that she was barred from having her yearbook photo taken and forbidden entry to her sixth-grade Valentine's Day dance.

"From time to time I was afraid of going to school because of what was going to happen next," she testified. "But later on there was less messing with me."

The girl claims her grades suffered because of the alleged treatment. Her suit against the district alleges that her state and federal civil rights were violated because of interference with her education. It also alleges battery and infliction of emotional distress and seeks unspecified damages.

The battery claim stems from the girl's allegation that an administrator grabbed her by the arm and yanked her inside an office.

School attorney Laura Bullock denied that the girl was grabbed and said in her opening statement that her civil rights were never violated.

"There was not one day when she was kept out of school or sent home," Bullock said.

However, Bullock conceded, the girl was wrongly barred from the dance by an attendant who thought a uniform was mandatory.

The state Legislature in 1995 made it legal for public schools to require uniforms. School uniform policies, however, have been challenged nationwide and federal court rulings based on free speech grounds have given parents the right to opt out.

Los Angeles schools in the mid-1990s started to adopt school uniform policies, in part, to counter street gangs that often affiliated themselves with certain colors. The Long Beach Unified School District in 1994 was the first public school system in the country to require uniforms.