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      GULFPORT, Mississippi (CWNews.com) - The school board in Gulfport, Mississippi, on Monday reversed a previous decision that said a Jewish boy could not openly wear a Star of David necklace because it was sometimes used as a gang symbol.

      The Harrison County School Board changed its previous decision after national attention including criticism from such diverse groups as local religious leaders and the American Civil Liberties Union. Ryan Green, 15, is the son of a Christian mother and a Jewish father and his paternal grandfather gave him the pendant over the summer.

      When Ryan and his father went to sign up for fall semester classes at Harrison Central High School two weeks ago, a teacher told him to wear the pendant inside his shirt "for his own good." The following day the boy returned to school for the start of the semester, still wearing the Star of David. A teacher ordered him to remove it.

      The boy's father took the matter up with the school board at its meeting last week, and the board ruled that the Star of David could be mistaken for a gang emblem, which district policy forbids from schools. The board said law enforcement officials had advised them that a coastal Mississippi group known as the Black Gangster Disciples used a nearly identical six-pointed star as its symbol.

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