M

an important victory fos-religious
freedom, which they- hope will send a
signal to other school districts around
the United States that do riot show
sensitivity to the rights of religious
minorities.
"We hope that this . particular inci-
dent, resolved correctly in short order
and with little fuss, will prevent other
school districts from acting in a man-
ner insensitive to the religious rights
of students," said Nathan Diament,
director of the Orthodox Union's
Institute for Public Affairs.
Torn Green, Ryan's father, was
quoted as saying the victory is "a
wonderful feeling."
He said, "We are truly joyous. As a
father to his son, this is the best prin-
ciple I could teach him: stand up for
your rights."
. In Michigan, school districts say
they have no problems allowing their
students to wear religious symbols.
However, immeaiate action is taken
against students wearing any symbols
or styles of clothing seen as gang-
related.
The Southfield Public Schools has
seen a sprinkling of what spokesman
ana wannabes,
Ken Stivers calls "gang
along with occasional gang-influenced
graffiti.
"It's not prevalent — it doesn't
happen every day," he said. "Most of
the kids don't want it, so they come
forward and express their concern.
A student had to turn over his
notebook, covered with gang
insignia, to the school's police liai-
son officer. Another time, younger
students used gang symbols on
ersatz money in a computerized
simulation game.
Stivers stressed these incidents do
not seem .to involve young people
who themselves belong to gangs.
"Tht: few gang things that have actu-
ally happened here have been out-
siders," he said.
C. Robert Maxfield, superinten-
dent of Farmington Public Schools,
said there was a "flurry of gang-relat-
ed graffiti and other gang-related
stuff" when he arrived in the district
nearly six years ago.
"There was a fear then that we
would focus too much energy on
stopping gangs, and not enough on
the root causes," he said.
"If you don't focus on peer media-
tion, conflict resolution, diversity
training and those types of experi-
ences, that's what you get." L

"

Jewish News Staff Writer Diana
Lieberman contributed to this story

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