Runner Wears Uniform That Caused DQ

January 17, 2008

Author: Alan Goldenbach

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603574.html?hpid=sec-religion

Juashaunna Kelly, the Theodore Roosevelt High School senior track star who was disqualified from Saturday's Montgomery Invitational for wearing a noncompliant uniform, wore the same unitard yesterday and set three personal records at the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association Invitational at the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex in Landover.

Kelly, a devout Muslim, has worn the same uniform for two years, a single piece of spandex that includes a hood and covers her torso, arms and legs in accordance with her religious beliefs.

The left arm of the uniform is blue, the right is orange and the hood is similarly split between those colors. That design, officials at the Montgomery Invitational said, violated a rule of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which sanctioned the event, by not being "a single-solid color and unadorned, except for a single school name or insignia no more than 2 1/4 inches."