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The Clark County School District will send new guidance to graduating seniors and school administrators under an agreement reached with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

Southern Nevada high school seniors are heading toward graduation at the end of the month, but the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada says in a new lawsuit that many of the students are at risk of having their First Amendment rights violated again. The case, ACLU of Nevada v Clark County School District, Case No. A-25-919151-C, was filed in a Clark County court late Thursday. At issue is a Clark County School District policy adopted in March that added new restrictions on cap and gown decorations and banned objects and adornments that “constitute proselytizing speech.” Civil rights attorneys with the nonpartisan nonprofit say that the new district policy has led to individual schools creating their own guidelines, which even contradict themselves. The complaint says, for example, that Canyon Springs High School and Del Sol Academy have communicated both that all cap decorations will be banned and that students can adorn their cap with decorations that have religious or cultural significance. Las Vegas High School is going even further and requiring students to submit pictures of decorations and accessories for advance approval. ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said: “For the fourth year in a row, we are again hearing stories about CCSD schools enforcing unconstitutional restrictions on students’ decorating their caps and gowns at their high school graduation. Our clients and their families deserve the right to express themselves and celebrate their graduation. After CCSD previously attempted these types of restrictions before, state laws were passed that further clarified students’ rights to decorate their caps and gowns. At a time when so many students and their families feel attacked because of their backgrounds, it's disappointing to see CCSD once ignore the Constitution and the Nevada Legislature. Students do not ‘shed their constitutional rights’ to freedom of speech and religion at graduation and it's become almost farcical that they continue this type of suppressive conduct each year for no reason.”

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