A student in Texas has claimed that his high school violated his right to religious freedom when they forced him to shave his mustache in order for him to take his exams.
Paul Miller III, 16, is a student at Dawson High School in Pearland, Texas.
According to Miller, school officials told him over the last two months that his mustache was a violation of the school’s dress code.
‘I told the school I can’t shave, I’m Messianic Jew, it’s part of my religion,’ Miller told Scroll down for video
Paul Miller III (pictured), 16, a student at Dawson High School in Texas, has claimed that he was forced to shave his mustache in order to take his exams, which went against his religious beliefs
According to Miller, school officials told him over the last two months that his beard without mustache name (seen in both photos) was a violation of the school’s dress code
Miller said that he was told to submit a letter from his parents for a religious exemption, which he says was turned in to an assistant principal. He said the school then rejected the letter.
Last week, when Miller tried to take his exams, he was allegedly told by an administrator that he needed to abide by the dress code first.
‘She told me if I shaved, I would get my exemption,’ he told KPRC.
He then went to the nurse’s office where she ‘shaved me herself’, Miller said.
‘I kept telling her I was told to shave but I don’t want to do it, I was trying to work something out, apparently I couldn’t.
‘Apparently they don’t respect that and that’s horrible,’ he said.
Miller’s family is demanding a public apology from the district and for all staff to receive additional training.
Pictured is the Dawson High School in Pearland, Texas
A Pearland Independent School District spokesman said in a statement that ‘it is absolutely false that the school nurse shaved the student’.
According to the statement, ‘the student shaved himself by his own choosing’.
The district also claimed that they never received a note for the exemption.
Miller’s family is demanding a public apology from the district and for all staff to receive additional training.
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