Thou shall not tuck your shirt in
Monday, April 27th, 2009
Dyker Neyland says she fought for her daughter’s right to attend Irving’s Thomas Haley Elementary School wearing an untucked shirt because of her religious beliefs as a Christian.
The Irving school board agreed with her this week and overturned decisions by the principal and district administrators, who had told Neyland that her daughter, Javé, must attend school with her shirt tucked in.
Neyland says Javé, a 7-year-old second-grader, has the right to wear her shirttail out because of a Bible verse, 1 Timothy 2:9, which dictates that “women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing.”
It’s worth noting that young Javé has her hair braided.
“I don’t want her behind showing,” Neyland said. “I don’t want her body being exposed.”
“I feel I am being persecuted for being a Christian,” she told the board before the vote. “There will be a day of reckoning, and you will have to answer to God.”
School board president Jerry Christian supported her request and said the student handbook for parents doesn’t even mention anything about tucking shirts in. Therefore, it’s unclear, he said
“Thank you, Jesus. God is good!” Neyland cried out.
The school board agreed with Neyland on a 6-1 vote.
I love the threat of a day of reckoning coming to the school board. Almost like she’s Wyatt Earp and they are wearing red sashes.
Neyland said she was raised Baptist in Louisiana but does not attend church regularly since she cannot afford to buy a nice dress.
The Bible doesn’t say anything about having to have a nice dress to wear to church.
Neyland has repeatedly clashed with the school’s new principal, Lisa Molinar, at one point wearing a sign accusing her of being a dictator. Molinar said she had no comment on the situation.
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