California student may wear eagle feather at graduation

A Native American student who sued his California school district because it refused to let him wear an eagle feather to his high school graduation will be allowed to wear the sacred item after all.

Attorneys for Christian Titman and officials with Clovis Unified School District reached an agreement Tuesday night that permits him to wear the feather, said Rebecca Farmer, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, one of the groups representing Titman. She provided no other details.

Earlier Tuesday, a judge suggested the two parties try to reach a resolution after the student's lawyers argued in court that Titman's rights to freedom of expression and religion under the state constitution were being violated.

Titman, an 18-year-old member of the Pit River Tribe, said he wants to attach the 5-inch feather he received from his father to the tassel on his cap at the Clovis High School ceremony, set for Thursday about 10 miles northeast of Fresno.

He wants to mark his achievement and honor his heritage, according to the lawsuit filed in state court on Monday. The tribe considers eagle feathers sacred and symbolic of a significant accomplishment.

“The district's refusal to allow a small symbol of religious expression during the graduation ceremony is a misunderstanding of both the spirit and the letter of the law,” argued Novella Coleman, an ACLU staff attorney. “The implication that an eagle feather with religious significance is unacceptable or disruptive signals a deep disrespect from the district.”

In a letter to Titman's attorneys, Superintendent Janet Young said the district has a strict graduation dress code intended to show “respect for the formality of the graduation ceremony, unity of the graduating class and also to avoid disruption of the graduation ceremonies that would likely occur if students were allowed to alter or add on to their graduation cap and gown.”

The district has refused to allow stoles, leis, rosaries and necklaces on graduation caps and gowns, and its dress code is neutral on religion, Young said. Titman could wear the eagle feather after the ceremony and take photos with the principal, she said.

The issue has come up in other U.S. school districts. Last month Chief U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ruled that a Native American student couldn’t wear an eagle feather on her graduation cap. He said the school's policy of prohibiting all decorations on graduation caps did not violate the U.S. Constitution's right to exercise religion freely because it was religion-neutral and applied generally. The school also had a legitimate interest in maintaining the formality of the ceremony and in demonstrating the unity of the graduating class, he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that governments don't have to make exceptions to religiously neutral laws that are applied generally, said Aaron Caplan, a constitutional law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. But the California Supreme Court has not resolved the issue under the state's constitution, under which Titman is bringing his lawsuit, Caplan said.

The California Constitution guarantees free exercise and enjoyment of religion, but not if it would lead to actions that are “licentious” or inconsistent with peace or safety. That would seem to favor Titman's argument that he has a right to wear the eagle feather, Caplan said.

“I don't see any reason why displaying an eagle feather at graduation could be considered licentious or inconsistent with the peace or safety of the state,” he said.

The Associated Press