And for better or worse, we don't allow toy guns in school either.
I fail to see how a religious test on either real or fake weapons should be permissible to allow some people to break the rules but not others.
It's exclusionary politics.
Maybe, but it's something we have a long and storied history of doing. There's a whole hat full of religious exemptions from government rules and policies.
And I think, in actuality, they make sense. There's school (and work) dress codes that we make religious exemptions for, as well as various exemptions for prayer time and time off. And that's good. Unless the state can show an actual threat or harm that requires interfering we should let people practice their religion as they see fit. Wasn't that one of the whole points of this country?
I can see, and would support, if a Sikh child were pulling or actively disrupting class with his kirpan punishing him
for disrupting class. But the report is that it was
seen during some roughhousing that was so low key that he's not in trouble for rough housing. There's no harm here, and no valid reason for the state to interfere with his religion.
As far as the rule for the rest of us, it's stupid, but one of the tenets of our government is that one's religion is ...well sacred. Valid religious beliefs do, and have for the entire history of our country, let various stupid laws not apply to various groups.
Question: How do you feel about the Conscientious Objector exclusion to the draft?
I would also posit that our societies energy would be better spent getting rid of idiotic rules rather then forcing more people to comply with them, if we deside that exclusionary politics is so evil.
