It is the policy of the Iowa City Community School District not to discriminate on the basis of religion, and religious discrimination by government-funded institutions is also illegal under the United States Constitution and a myriad of federal and state laws.

So why is the dress code at City High School permitted to religiously discriminate against students? I have been told to remove my hood, while other students are allowed to wear their religiously-obligated head-coverings. I think all students should be allowed to choose to cover their heads, regardless of religion.

The Iowa City Community School District’s non-condemnation of discrimination against students for those students’ religious beliefs or lack thereof  is absolutely intolerable and must be stopped immediately. At the core, the idea of favoring certain pupils for their beliefs or lack thereof is fundamentally discriminatory and un-American, and I dearly hope that the Iowa City Community School District will make the correct choice and formally denounce this unfair head-covering policy.

The Iowa City Community School District allows students who are followers of mainstream religious groups that recommend or require head-covering to wear their respective religious head-coverings, including mantillas, hujub, kippot and turbans, for example. However, many students are not allowed to wear head-coverings for other creeds or are prohibited from wearing equivalent secular head-coverings because of their beliefs. This is blatantly unlawful discrimination against the many students in the Iowa City Community School District who are not adherents to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism, respectively. By law, public schools are not allowed to encourage or discourage any religion. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution disallows the government from making laws or rules that favor some religions over others or give special privileges and rights to people who follow certain religions. In many common circumstances, the United States Constitution allows neutral rules that apply to everyone, such as a rule barring all head-coverings, regardless of faith. By being allowed to wear head-coverings, students are commonly favored by the Iowa City Community School District for their religious adherence, even though Supreme Court jurisprudence has reaffirmed that “schools must remain neutral where credo is concerned: they may not support, protect, oppose, or disadvantage one religious doctrine or practice over another.” Students who do not adhere to certain religions are thereby illegally discriminated against by the Iowa City Community School District.

It is certainly not the place or role of the school to determine what qualifies as a religious belief. All beliefs should be treated equally by the Iowa City Community School District. In the landmark case of United States vs. Seeger, the Supreme Court stated “The validity of what he believes cannot be questioned. Some theologians, and indeed some examiners, might be tempted to question the existence of the registrant’s ‘Supreme Being’ or the truth of his concepts. But these are inquiries foreclosed to Government.” The school has neither a right to question which beliefs we hold nor whether these beliefs are “real”.

In order to stop this embarrassingly intolerant discrimination, the Iowa City Community School District must either not allow teachers to tell students to remove head-coverings, unless the garb is clearly “Student dress which is suggestive, condones illegal activity or in some way disrupts the educational process;”, as per the Iowa City Community School District’s Code #501 Impermissible Conduct Section. Or, the Iowa City Community School District may decide to both recognize all students’ head-coverings as equally “disrupting the educational process;” and therefore prohibit all head-coverings — both religious and secular — in classes. The status quo of discrimination against students based on their religious adherence or lack thereof is intolerant, hurtful, oppressive and unlawful. If the Iowa City Community School District were to recognize head-coverings as “disrupting the educational process;”, which is the vague definition from the Iowa City Community School District’s Code #501 Impermissible Conduct Section, then the Iowa City Community School District would also have to prohibit all head-coverings, regardless of the wearer’s beliefs or lack thereof. A hoodie or baseball cap can never be more “disruptive” than a burqa, mantilla, or other religious head covering is.

I and many other students in the Iowa City Community School District feel personally everyday that our religious rights are being trampled. We are routinely asked to remove our head-coverings and many teachers have rules about head-coverings in their classes from which followers of mainstream religions are immune and by which they are not mandated to comply. Walter McDonough ‘19 calls himself “one of them mighty spiritualistic folk”, and is frustrated that he is not allowed to freely practice his beliefs in school. It is absolutely disgraceful and tragic that we would be oppressed for our beliefs like this. This is a harrowing experience for us everyday, and those who want to continue to oppress us are the same people take who pleasure in kicking puppies and pushing small children in front of moving cars.

Government-funded schools cannot legally give a student special rights or exempt him or her from any rules because of the student’s religious beliefs. The Anti-Defamation League affirms that “the government does not advance or promote religious belief over non-religious belief or a particular religious belief over other religious beliefs. Simply, the public schools should work to ensure that they do not endorse or disapprove religion, neither promoting nor denigrating it.” The American Civil Liberties Union has also denounced religious affiliation-based exemptions from policies, and has litigated those schools that continue to religiously discriminate through the arbitrary exemption of students from policies, including dress codes. Per precedential stare decisis of religion in the public schools in the United States, the Iowa City Community School District must not continue to discriminate against students for their religious beliefs or lack thereof. This has also been affirmed in Section Four of the State of Iowa’s Constitution, “no person shall be deprived of any of his rights, privileges, or capacities, or disqualified from the performance of any of his public or private duties, or rendered incompetent to give evidence in any court of law or equity, in consequence of his opinions on the subject of religion;”

The Iowa City Community School District claims that “The District supports the delivery of the education program and services to students free of discrimination on the basis of age (except for students), race, color, sex, marital status, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. This concept of equal educational opportunity serves as a guide for the District, the Board and the employees in making decisions relating to school District facilities, employment, and selection of educational materials, equipment, curriculum, and regulations affecting students.” If this is really true, as the Iowa City Community School District claims in Code #504 of the Administrative Guideline Equal Educational Opportunity Program, then the Iowa City Community School District will surely renounce this intolerant, arbitrary, unlawful, un-American, religious discrimination, and move forward by treating all students and their head-coverings as equals.

My sincere recommendation to the Iowa City Community School District is to choose the obviously moral, American, fair, and tolerant option. Allow students, regardless of belief or lack thereof, to cover their heads. To choose whether to follow a religion is a right for all Americans, and the Iowa City Community School District should respect that.