Merced elementary dress code policy has date in court

MERCED — McSwain Union Elementary School District put its fashion foot down this year after it adopted a fairly stringent dress code policy.

Changes to the existing policy forbid students from wearing clothing with graphics or text, unless logos are 1 inch in size.

"Periodically, we've had kids' shirts that are inappropriate, whether it's a Hooters shirt or a Johnson shirt," said McSwain Union Elementary School District Superintendent Stan Mollart. "I hope we'll have less distractions in the classrooms because of this."

One of the incidents unraveled into a civil rights lawsuit in 2008 that's still unfolding.

According to earlier Sun-Star reports, a McSwain Elementary School sixth-grader said she was forced by school administrators to remove her abortion opposition T-shirt in 2008.

The student's mother, Anna Amador, filed a lawsuit against McSwain Elementary School. The lawsuit claimed that the district violated her daughter's free speech rights, right to due process, conducted an unreasonable seizure of her property and committed battery by forcefully grabbing the girl's arm.

The district denied all the allegations.

A jury trial is set for Aug. 31 in the U.S. District Court in Fresno.