Texas High School Student Told Rosary Is 'Gang Symbol'

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:hmmm: Well, it isn’t meant to be jewelry in the first place

I can understand why the school would consider it a gang symbol, if some gang members had been using it as such. Honestly, it is sad that this is happening, but I think it is justifiable. 😦
 
It is not jewlery. I think that it is unfortinate that gangs have taken and desecrated a religious symbole. I guess the question needs to be asked why does she feel the need to where it as jewlery. If it is for commfort why not just carry it? Just some speculation.
 
Don’t know her reason for wearing, said was a gift, may wear for protection from this school with gang problem. Me I only wear when I am in deep pain and in need of comfort from my Mother who can take all unspoken pain within body right to the very throne of Christ. In wearing no one needs to know that right now I am not doing so well, I can smile with Her help and go on. Whn worn this way is not jewerly but a prayer.
I guess now I carry and at times wear a “gang” thing to them but only if I allow this to happen to our Prayer.
 
i know its not for use as jewelry. my point was that it should be allowed to be worn. just because some use as gang related, its not a gang symbol. they cant turn it into a gang thing. its the rosary. you know, its her right.
 
She should contact Bill Donohue at CCRL. I remember hearing cases like this in NY 10 years ago.

Wearing a rosary around your neck is a cultural thing I have observed. As for it being “gang related” is irrelevant. Having a rosary around your neck doesn’t help gangs to do “gang things (like dealing dope)”. It would be different if it was a cell phone or a pager.
 
coleraine said:
i know its not for use as jewelry. my point was that it should be allowed to be worn. just because some use as gang related, its not a gang symbol. they cant turn it into a gang thing. its the rosary. you know, its her right.
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The problem is in this day and age any nut case can turn anything into a gang symbol in defense of their individual and civic rights. Not right, but we let that slip by too. Too little too late.

And other posters are right. The rosary is not jewelry, but a sacramental to be treated and reverenced as such.
 
coleraine said:
i know its not for use as jewelry. my point was that it should be allowed to be worn. just because some use as gang related, its not a gang symbol. they cant turn it into a gang thing. its the rosary. you know, its her right.
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Wearing gang symbols can be a life or death thing. In lots of areas if you have the wrong symbol or no symbol you are in danger of being shot. I abhor the fact that gangs have taken the rosary as a symbol but the fact is they have and the school is right to ban the wearing of it. If she wants, she can carry it in her pocket. I see her suing the school with the hope of a large cash settlement at the bottom of this.
 
:coffeeread: living here in Texas, I know what they are talking about.Yes, the Hispanic gangs do wear rosarys.Now whether they ever pray with the rosary around their necks, that i don’t know.Some of them might be devout who can say.
The rosary is a connection to Our Lady,and for them specifically Our Lady of Guadalupe.Not all gang bangers wear them by the way,but many do.
It bothers me when I see someone wear it like a necklace, I guess because i come from a different culture(Hungarian-German)
for one thing, and because it seems to be irrevenant,and almost
like a pagan superstition(If I wear this rosary, it will protect me from bullets,etc.)You never ever see photos of men like Al Capone or John Gotti,or Lucky Luciano wearing them, none of the old school gangsters did that.If they did, it was well hidden and not visible to the public ,not like with these kids.

This girl wants to wear her rosary.It sounds like it is very lovely,a
very nice one indeed.But it is not some piece of jewelry to enhance one’s attractiveness.Wonder if any of these kids know the story of the Rosary and how it came about.
If I were a judge, I would through any lawsuit they make against the school district,since this is certainly not a religious issue,and also ask her if she really knows what a rosary is and what it is used for. School districts have a right to institute dress codes
and if not wearing rosaries because it is a gang symbol, then so be it.
 
I’m probably getting a little off thread here, but this seems to be simply another example of how effective the enemy is in our battle of spiritual warfare.

Years ago, the battle was begun when some of the most immoral persons wore crosses & crucifixes (not a judgement, only observation as evidenced by their actions & behavior). We should have, & maybe some did, voice our objection thru some effective venue. And we should in this case as well. Not to deny anyone the protection of their cultural & religious rights & freedoms (the protectors of the 1st Amendment would run screaming from all directions), but to re-claim what so many have forgotten,the second half of that same Amendment guarantees protection of religious freedom & expression. Whenever there is a societal clash between culture & religion, it seems that somewhere the forces of darkness will be on the sideline stirring up that society against the forces of light, with them being accused of fanaticism or extremism. The light then dims, we back down, because we don’t want to be found guilty of any form of discrimination, prejudice, or intimidation. Once again, the lines of morality have become blurred, the enemy has confused the issue, & will have won the battle.

I would dare say that if this teen has elder relatives who are equally comfortable in their culture & their religion, they probably would disapprove of the wearing of a rosary, & I would like to hope that somewhere in this country, they are picking up their part in the spiritual battle by taking a stand & making their disapproval known & heard.

My prayers to all involved, especially this teen in the story, & many others who allow themselves to be deceived by the father of lies.
 
The girl may not have ever had proper formation to realize the rosary is not a tailsman, amulet or “good luck charm” so, that is between her, her parents and her priest to work on (and CCD teacher apparently!)
However, where does it stop? Crosses? Crucifx? Headscarves?
Yammaka (sp)? Just about any gang may or may not be connected to wearing any of the above!
I don’t think the public school should be trusted to determine who should or should not wear whatever religious symbol/devotional, ect unless they across the board illiminate all of them for all faiths.
Unless they can prove this girl is connected to a gang, they have no business telling her she can’t wear it. If they do, they MUST tell Mulsims to not wear their headcoverings, ect. Because SOME terrorists have worn them.
They are not qualifyed to judge how each person is using that item.
 
In the U.K.i haven’t heard of the rosary being referred to as a gang symbol,but i have heard of the Cross being used as a Fashion item,nothing to do with religious belief.Regarding the headcovering by Muslim women,i don’t have a problem with that,but i do object to the veil.Some of them have an accent which i can barely understand without the veil covering their face.No chance of lipreading here!!! In any case,we had a group of terrorists doing a robbery in 2005 and they wounded one policewoman and killed the other,leaving a man with the task of telling his daughter that her Mum wouldn’t be coming home,just a few days away from the little girl’s 4th.birthday.One of those killers managed to make his escape to Pakistan,using his sister’s passport and dressed in a woman’s clothes including the veil.I wonder why the Immigration people didn’t demand that he raise the veil.If it really is about Muslim women’s modesty,then surely that problem is solved by leaving that task to a female Immigration Officer.
channel4.com/news/articles/dispatches/undercover+mosque+the+return/2436087
 
My sister fought this battle last year. She is a junior high teacher at a public school, and had a student who was a proud gang member, who had served time as a juvenile for selling drugs in the school bus, and who wore a rosary (he’s not Catholic) around his neck as a sign of his gang membership.

She protested, told him to take it off, and told him it was offensive to her as a Catholic. He griped to the principal who permitted him to wear it.

My sister complained all the way up the school hierarchy chain that this was an improper use of a religious symbol, offensive to her as it should be to the other Catholics in their school, and a known and recognized gang symbol. The school claimed this expression fell under free speech and he was permitted to continue to wear the Rosary.

Rosaries are not meant for wearing around one’s neck anyway. This girl’s parents should have corrected her from a religious perspective before she went to school.
 
Chovy said:
Rosaries are not meant for wearing around one’s neck anyway. This girl’s parents should have corrected her from a religious perspective before she went to school.
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I’ve seen many devout parishioners from Mexico of all ages who do keep their rosary around their neck. Maybe it began when clothing for the poor did not have pockets. Who knows, but it is not just a fad that is merely being done by young people as “jewelry” or a fashion statement. (I’ve seen that also on TV more recently, but it is not why these folks wear their rosary.) It is worn inside the shirt, so if they have on a higher neckline you may just see the outline. When they come to adoration they use it and then put it back on. I think that we all need to remember that the church is not exactly the same in all of its practices in every culture/country and not assume that our way is the only proper way.

I was raised that the normal rosary was not “jewelry.” However, as an adult I have purchased a rosary bracelet that is specifically made to be worn on the wrist. I love having it on as a reminder to pray and for the convenience that I have it even when my clothing does not have pockets. It also keeps me from accidentally washing a rosary or leaving it in my other purse. I have also seen rosary necklaces that are specifically made to be worn (with much smaller beads than normal). A visible sign of our faith can often be an opening for evangelization too.

I hope that someone buys the young lady in the story a nice bracelet rosary so that she can have the comfort of her rosary all day and stay out of trouble too.
 
Chovy said:
This girl’s parents should have corrected her from a religious perspective before she went to school.
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Yes, if her parents had only had formation of the faith they would never have let her walk out the door with it used as a necklace.

Yes, if her parents would only have had a good priest in their parish, to make sure that his flock had proper formation.

Yes, if this girl had only had a godparent who gave whip about her religious upbringing, then maybe you could say this.

However, the blame is all over in this case.
 
jc-servant said:
I hope that someone buys the young lady in the story a nice bracelet rosary so that she can have the comfort of her rosary all day and stay out of trouble too.
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You are talking about a decade rosary right? That is for if you wish to only say a decade? (I could be wrong)

I agree that would be nice, but only if she understands what the differences may be and why. And that any article will not bring her peace… She has fingers, she can say the rosary without the beads then! You count your fingers.

Real simple. But if she needs it to pray the Rosary,

(only she knows if that is what she wants to do)

We should pray for her parents to teach her about the faith.
And Godparents. And her parish priest.
 
A piece of jewelry is worn to enhance one’s physical allure; a religious symbol is worn as a profession of faith. That’s the simple distinction. So if this young lady is wearing it as a religious symbol I hope her faith is strong enough to enable her to fight for her right to wear it. What does it say about our culture, and about our cynicism, that we are allowing groups of aggression to take over a religious symbol as their own? I wear a crucifix every day as profession of faith, and I will not stop wearing it if it becomes illegal to do so! Eventually, Christians will have to hide signs of their faith–does this sound familiar, any history buffs out there?–if we let this kind of controversy go unchallenged. Maybe gang members (or movie stars, whoever) will decide to start wearing a crucifix, carrying a Bible through the school halls, et cetera. Since when do Christians allow minors, regardless of their connection to crime–organized or not–dictate what we are ‘allowed’ to do or not do as it pertains to our lives of faith? Same with school officials, politicians and so forth–are we to leave it to them and their limited perspectives to determine what we can and cannot do as Christians? It’s a slippery slope.
 
notsmart said:
You are talking about a decade rosary right? That is for if you wish to only say a decade? (I could be wrong)

I agree that would be nice, but only if she understands what the differences may be and why. And that any article will not bring her peace… She has fingers, she can say the rosary without the beads then! You count your fingers.

Real simple. But if she needs it to pray the Rosary,

(only she knows if that is what she wants to do)

We should pray for her parents to teach her about the faith.
And Godparents. And her parish priest.
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It only has one decade of beads, but you can use it to say as many decades as you like. Most people don’t carry a full rosary around anyway because I only see ones with 5 decades of beads rather than 15 or now 20 with the Luminous mysteries. I say a full rosary by going around my bracelet rosary many times. I also use my fingers to pray a rosary when driving or exercising for example, but many people prefer to feel the beads in their fingers.

BTW, Jesus used many physical items to work miracles when He clearly did not require anything from this Earth to work them.

A rosary can be a channel for God to give a person grace, so why not be a little more charitable towards the girl and her family and a lot less superior in our attitudes about what she and her family should or should not know or do. The physical rosary would not be providing the girl with peace, it would be Christ working through her act of faith.
 
Well, if gangs were wearing the rosary as a symbol of their gang then they had every right to tell her that it was a gang symbol. However, I still believe she should have the right to wear the rosary if she wants to and it is sad that some people would use it as a gang symbol. 😦
 
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