Wearing 'purity rings' is banned at girls' school

If this were happening in the U.S., I would say it is a violation of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. Does the U.K. have such codified protection of the exercise of religion?

I also agree with the point that Sikhs are allowed to wear their scarves at the school. Looks like a real bone-headed administration at the school.

 

Those rings don't mean a thing, kids have always said one thing and did or meant another. I saw recently that stastics show when christian youth do things like wear a ring, or the true love waits thing that they aren't necessarliy doing what they are saying, many of those kids are sexually active and wearing rings or signing a card promising to wait till marriage.

 

The Sikhs don't wear hajibs, the Moslems do or at least the Arab Moslems - in Bangladesh, that is a foreign custom - which raises the question if the hajib is cultural or religious. The girl Sikhs have the bangle bracelet (boy Sikhs have the top-knot and dagger).

Just because the silver ring thing is only an eleven-year old tradition doesn't make it less traditional than centuries old ones, does it?

 

My bad. Typing quicker than the brain (or at least my brain) can think. :laugh:

I guess you could also discount the purity rings as not religious either. However, you are right. Traditions have to start somewhere.

 

I found this about the rings, wish I could remember where I read the original info,


This is from a medical web site and uses some descriptive words,
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=21606

According to one study, however, the majority of teens who make these pledges are not taking them seriously.
Of 12,000 teenagers who had promised to stay virgins until marriage, 88 percent reported engaging in premarital sex, according to the study, released at the National Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention Conference in March 2004.
While teens who signed pledges did not become sexually active until a year and a half after making their promise, the study also found that when those teens did break their pledges, they were far less likely to use birth control than teens who did not make pledges.
snip
San Francisco college student Ariel Zambelich, 19, relinquished her virginity after vowing to wait but agrees with the idea of pledging, despite her final decision.
"I've had guys try to pressure me into having sex, and I've been dumped a few times for not caving in," she says. "But I wanted to hold onto (my virginity) at least until I found someone I had strong enough feelings for, someone I could marry. That was always more important."
Zambelich did meet that someone, and although she broke her promise, she says she is happy with the choice.
"I don't regret losing my virginity when I did," she says. "It was the right decision for me."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20050604/ai_n15833684