Male Student Sues School District Over Earring Ban

Jimmy Lee Peters, 15, thinks the much-publicized gang problem has been blown “way out of proportion,” but when he was banned from wearing an earring to school because of it, that’s where he drew the line.

This week, Peters, an eighth-grader at Stephen M. White Junior High School in Carson who was suspended for refusing to conform to the school’s dress code, sued the school, the principal and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“Just because a few bad people wear earrings, that doesn’t mean they should stop everybody from wearing them,” said Peters, who claims that he has never belonged to a gang.

School officials maintain that the dress code at the school--which also prohibits the use of other gang-related accessories such as head bands, baseball caps, and red and blue handkerchiefs or shoelaces denoting affiliation with a particular gang--is necessary to maintain safety on campus.

“We have quite a few young people affiliated with gangs,” said school Principal Carolyn Bohm, who added that violent confrontations between members of the Bloods and Crips gangs at the school are not unusual.

“What we’re trying to do (with the dress code) is neutralize the gang influence. . . . We’re trying to make our school a safe place with a climate conducive to learning,” she said.

Bohm added that such dress codes have been common practice for several years at schools located in gang-troubled areas.

But in his lawsuit, Peters maintains that the school’s ban on earrings violates his constitutional rights of self expression.

Peters’ lawyer, Carol Sobel of the American Civil Liberties Union, contends that “the banning of a particular style of dress does not make a campus safe.”

Peters transferred to the school in January and his troubles began soon after that. He was told to stop wearing an earring several times, and the first of several suspensions over his refusal to conform began in March, he said.

In April, when Peters and his parents threatened the school with a suit over the issue, he was allowed to wear a simple stud earring pending a decision by the district Board of Education on the matter.

On Monday, the board upheld the junior high school’s policy barring males from wearing earrings and, on Wednesday, the ACLU filed the suit on Peters’ behalf.