COLLINSVILLE • A five-day suspension of a Collinsville High School student for wearing rosary beads has sparked a debate over free speech and dress codes that are designed to prevent gang activity.

Rodrigo Avila, 16, was punished for wearing rosary beads to school, his family said. He returned to school Feb. 25. His mother said Sunday that his use of the rosary beads was religious.

Law enforcement officials nationwide have linked wearing rosary beads to gang activity.

Superintendent Dennis Craft declined to comment Monday on the situation or on any disciplinary actions, citing confidentiality laws regarding students.

A Collinsville High School student handbook devotes a half-page to "prohibiting gang activity." Though it does not mention rosary beads or any other items specifically, the school bans "any clothing, jewelry, emblem, badge, symbol, sign, or other things that are evidence of membership or affiliation in any gang." Punishments for a first offense vary, but they include suspension for a minimum of five days and a maximum of 10 days, the handbook says.

Craft said the anti-gang section was put into the handbook about five years ago. When asked if gangs are an issue in the school he said, "I think every large high school has issues such as this."

Rodrigo's mother, Julia Avila, of Fairmont City, said the boy's godfather had given the beads to him last year for his Confirmation. She said her family was religious, attending Mass nearly every Sunday at Holy Rosary Catholic Church.

But she also said that she did not know why her son had chosen to wear them to school again after having been warned in October that he would face suspension if he broke the rule a second time.

"He wears it just out of the blue, I guess," she said.

She said she thought the five-day suspension was excessive. She also thinks that they are being unfairly treated, and that other students are upset.

Fairmont City recently merged with the Collinsville School District.

Avila said she was not interested in filing a lawsuit or getting civil liberties groups involved.

The issue has sparked controversies in the past as school districts have disciplined students who wear the beads in class. Two students in Albany, Ore., for example, were suspended for refusing to remove rosary beads.

The Rev. John Beveridge at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Collinsville said, "Among Hispanic people, wearing very visible signs of faith like a cross or a rosary is not unusual. Those things are part of devotion and prayerfulness. I'm not surprised at a youth wearing a rosary." He said he had never heard of the rosary's being gang-related. "I'm concerned for him and for others who might be doing the same thing out of devotion," he said.

Gary Peccola, president of the Collinsville Board of Education, said the Collinsville High School police resource officers had information that rosary beads had been used as gang symbols in the past. Peccola said that if a student had rosary beads in his or her pocket at school, no disciplinary action would be taken.

But students have been advised not to publicly display rosary beads on school grounds because of potential gang connotations, he said. The superintendent said the school district had to put safety first.

"We want to provide a safe, nurturing environment for our students to learn," Craft said.

Nancy Cambria and Robert Kelly, both of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.