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Girl, 13, fights school uniform in court
Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:54 AM ET
By Dan Whitcomb
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.
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