Elwood senior Shauntee Chaffin, 18, will be added to a complaint in U.S. District Court in documents that were to be filed today, attorney Jacquelyn Bowie of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union said this morning.
Chaffin is enrolled in the same "cadet teaching" program as original plaintiff Brandi Lehman, 17, who sued the Elwood Community School Corp. last month for not allowing her to wear a pentagram necklace.
School officials ordered Lehman to remove the necklace when she participates in a student teaching program at a local elementary school. An interim agreement allows Lehman to wear the jewelry in school, but not while student teaching.
She spent last week in a study hall during the time she had been scheduled to be with the elementary students. "I go to a room and I sit," she said. She also receives credit for participating in the program.
Efforts by both sides to resolve the dispute out of court broke down last week.
Chaffin, who also practices Wicca and wears a similar necklace, sought help from the ACLU after being subpoenaed in the case, Bowie said.
The school district contends problems with the girls started when they were confronted about making personal copies of Wiccan materials on the elementary school's copy machines.
