8th-grader suspended, arrested, charged for NRA shirt

[philip964]

I can't imagine any DA going forward with prosecuting this kid. However, the Libs keep using this tactic to intimidate and silence kids and families who support RKBA. It is politicized child abuse and is disgraceful. I wish the NRA would organize a national RKBA day and every family that supports the NRA or RKBA would send their kids to school wearing an NRA or RKBA t-shirt with AR-15's printed on them. They couldn't suspend and arrest all of them and it would teach our children it's ok to stand up to petty tyrants and stupid liberals. Maybe then this nonsense would stop. We need a Chic-Fil-A day for guns.

End of Rant.

good rant.

[VoiceofReason]

If a school district is going to be vague and subjective than just go to uniforms.
Dress code has gotten out of hand. One day their ok with the way a student dresses and the next day their suspended for wearing the very same thing. Schools need to pick and choose their battles.
A shirt expressing your 2A rights is bad but a girl wearing a skirt so short it leaves nothing to the imagination is ok.
I am sick and tired of this battle with the Pearland ISD.

I never have agreed with school uniforms. Seems like they help do away with individuality. Everyone looks alike and is expected to think alike.
I guess it is those film clips we saw as I was growing up of children in communist countries, dressed in uniforms, all looking alike, exercising in perfect unison.

[psijac]

Uniforms increase agression

[Mike1951]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/22/we ... latestnews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A West Virginia teenager returned to class Monday wearing the same National Rifle Association T-shirt that led to his suspension and arrest after he refused a teacher's order last week to remove it.

Other students across Logan County wore similar shirts, which display the NRA logo and a hunting rifle, to school in a show of support for 14-year-old Jared Marcum, said his lawyer Ben White.

[Dave2]

I hope the family of the student files a lawsuit. Instead of money, though, I'd demand that the teachers and school officials involved be fired and their educator license permanently revoked, and the arresting officer(s) suspended until they get through their apparently thick head(s) that they can't arrest people for doing things that aren't illegal.

The problem won't go away until we start fighting the source. Maybe if corrupt educators start realizing that there are consequences for being moronic, they might back off.

[Beiruty]

Stand up (with NRA) and fight!

[philip964]

Someone posted a photo of the young man and his shirt. Sorry I will try and post later.

Common sense would indicate to me this was not what you would wear to school. Unless it was some special day at school where the principal allows relaxed dress rules.

Freedom of expression does not extend into a school generally. The Supremes have already ruled on this.

This was not to me a case of where a teacher did not like the NRA and used a small gun in a small logo of the NRA to be picky and find a reason to suspend the young man.

Yes the school handbook apparently did not specifically exclude drawings like this, but to me most schools would object to the shirt I saw.

To me, if they gave the young man the opportunity to turn the shirt inside out and he refused, then I have no problem with what happened. I think the young man and/or his father maybe was trying to pick a fight.

The NRA should support fights they will win. To me this is not one of them.

My revised two cents.

[bdickens]

I hope they were trying to pick a fight. More people need to pick more fights against collectivist assaults on our civil rights.

[Robert*PPS]

Common sense would indicate to me this was not what you would wear to school. Unless it was some special day at school where the principal allows relaxed dress rules.

This shirt appears to be definitely relaxed, and I would agree with your statement if the relaxed nature of the shirt is what was called into question. It was not as turning it inside out wouldn't have fixed that. It was all about what was printed on the front. Classy shirt or not, the disruption, caused by the teacher, was all about the context and not the delivery. I would be very upset if I were this kid's father.

[mamabearCali]

My question is Are gay/straight alliance buttons permitted in school? Are save the whales shirts permitted? How about shirts that promote other political causes? Green earth...enviromental stuff....etc etc etc.

If the school wants to be a politics free zone I am fine with that. But it must be a 100% free from all political jargon, not just that which the handlers dislike. And why in the world did the police go along with filing charges.....WHAT! The school is free to do whatever it likes (suspend him, make him turn it inside out)...but wearing a shirt that supports the second amendment in school is not a crime! Putting a kid in cuffs because of a t-shirt is idiocy.

Bottom line....he is 13 and capable of staying home by himself. Home school him and don't give the idiots in charge another chance to get their meat hooks into him.

[Abraham]

mamabearCali

Well said.

[txglock21]

From EVERY article I have read, the shirt was NOT in violation of the school's dress code. He wore the shirt through 5 classes without ANY teacher or staff saying anything about it. He was then told by ONE teacher in the lunch line to turn it inside out and he refused because it wasn't against the dress code. The teacher then raised his voice to where the entire lunchroom could hear and thats what caused the OTHER students to stand on the tables as the student was being escorted out by the police. Just read where nearly 200 students in the ISD wore similar shirts to to school today to show support. IMO good for them!

[goose]

Unless there is video (and I hope there is, with all the phones around these days) this will come down to a case "he said, he said." The school will make it about the students behavior, not the content of the shirt. Behavior is subject to interpretation and therefor a huge grey area that will give them protection. I bet the NRA doesn't even bother to consider not touching this with a 10' pole. (yes I know it is a double negative) Without some hard evidence it will be way too far off their radar screen.

Sorry, I am cynical.

[Dadtodabone]

If a school district is going to be vague and subjective than just go to uniforms.
Dress code has gotten out of hand. One day their ok with the way a student dresses and the next day their suspended for wearing the very same thing. Schools need to pick and choose their battles.
A shirt expressing your 2A rights is bad but a girl wearing a skirt so short it leaves nothing to the imagination is ok.
I am sick and tired of this battle with the Pearland ISD.

I never have agreed with school uniforms. Seems like they help do away with individuality. Everyone looks alike and is expected to think alike.
I guess it is those film clips we saw as I was growing up of children in communist countries, dressed in uniforms, all looking alike, exercising in perfect unison.

Uniformity of dress has nothing to do with regimentation of thought. In a large majority of cases the ability to focus on one's studies instead of what Suzy or Sam is wearing, has allowed public schools to achieve the "Catholic School Effect" in regards academics and discipline.
http://factspluslogic.com/articles/49/s ... e-required
Add in the benefits of a safer environment

“The quantitative outcomes of the policy have been remarkable. Crime report summaries are now available for the five-year post-uniform policy period and reflect that school crime overall has dropped approximately 86%, even though K-8 student enrollment increased 14%.

and you begin to wonder why all schools aren't requiring uniforms.
Eliminating a source of the anxiety, stress and in some cases shame, that pubescent and post-pubescent students have to deal with in a very difficult period of their development can't be anything but a plus.