Amended Complaint Filed in Student Rosary Case

I want to bring you an important update concerning a critical religious liberty case that generated quite a bit of interest and attention in New York state at the end of the school year.

Last week, our attorneys filed an amended complaint in our case against the Schenectady City School District and school officials on behalf of our client Raymond Hosier, who just completed the seventh grade.  You will recall that this case involves the school preventing Raymond from wearing his Rosary for religious and personal reasons.

We first filed our lawsuit on June 1, 2010, and requested emergency injunctive relief from the United States District Court in Albany, New York.  The same day, the federal judge granted our emergency relief and allowed Raymond to go back to school while wearing his Rosary.  And days letter, the federal judge extended the order permitting Raymond to finish out the school year in class wearing his Rosary.

As soon as Raymond went back to school, however, school officials began handing out school infractions to Raymond to retaliate against him for filing the lawsuit.  For example, on the day Raymond returned to schoolafter filing the lawsuit and receiving the courts emergency orderthe Dean of the school made Raymond sit at a detention table in the lunch room. 

When Raymond asked why he was being punished, the Dean responded, "If you want to play the insubordinate game, we can play too."

In our amended complaint, which you can read here, we added a new claim against the defendants for retaliating against Raymond in violation of the First Amendment. 

I will continue to keep you posted on this important case.