Washington Times - Inside the Beltway - Cross Roads

This is an excerpt taken from Inside the Beltway published in the Washington Times.

By Jennifer Harper, The Washington Times

CROSS ROADS

A crash course in First Amendment rights? The American Center for Law and Justice is filing a federal lawsuit against a New York school that suspended a seventh-grader on Monday for the second time after he wore a rosary to school. Raymond Hosier was also sent home last week from Oneida Middle School in Schenectady.

"The continuing action taken by the school district in punishing Raymond for wearing a rosary to school violates the constitutional rights of our client," said chief counsel Jay Sekulow, who is representing the boy and his mother. "Under the law, Raymond has a First Amendment right to wear his Rosary to school."

In a "demand letter" to the Schenectady City School District superintendent, the Board of Education and the school principal, Mr. Sekulow reminded the educators that "Raymond's rosary is a form of symbolic speech" and that the young man, who has no prior disciplinary issues, also wore the rosary as a memorial to his brother and an uncle - both deceased.