U.S. Army Cadet Command officials say a complaint by an advocacy group on behalf of a Ravenwood High School student has sparked a review of regulations spelling out what kinds of religious wear students may wear in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Program.
The review comes in the wake of a bias claim by the Council of American-Islamic Relations that a local JROTC program was discriminatory when it didn’t allow a high school freshman to wear her headscarf to march in a homecoming parade.
Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of “uniform”?
JROTC units are supposed to emulate the uniform regulations and grooming standards of their parent services.
If a Muslim headscarf or a Scottish tam or a Native American warrior’s feather or a Greek kilt run contrary to those regulations and standards, then they should not be permitted.
I know when I was ROTC (I can’t speak to JROTC), I’d have to run laps if a badge was just a centimeter out of place. We didn’t get any leave to wear anything that was not part of the uniform, even jewelry.
In any event, this was an outdoor activity. When I was in ROTC, when you were outdoors, you wore your uniform hat.
Anglicanfirst has it right. The JROTC uniform should mirror that of the parent service. No headscarves in the parent service, no headscrves for JROTC.
Could a woman serve on active duty wearing a headscarf? If not, this issue will have to be faced at some point, and it may as well be resolved now.
The answer to that is “yes, a woman can wear a headscarf on active duty.” See attached, which gives the latest DoD policy:
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/130017p.pdf
GB46, Paragraph 7 to the enclosure specifically provides for prohibition of visible religioul appearal during parades.
Pardon the typos.
The key word in that paragraph is “may”. It’s a judgement call that’s subject to review ( as is apparently happening in the JROTC case).
For the Army, Army Regulation 600-20, chapter 5, addresses the procedure for getting a religious accommodation authorized. It can be denied, but it then goes to the next level up for review.
In this case, there’s a reasonable chance the girl will win. The Army’s been encouraging female Soldiers to wear headscarves outside the bases in order to talk to the local Afghan women (hard enough at any time, and near-impossible if you’re male) and there’s a Sikh on active duty who’s authorized to wear a turban in uniform (ACU pattern for everyday use, and a black turban with flash for wear with the Class A uniform).