West Virginia teen arrested for wearing NRA shirt to school

[SPEMack618]

In high school, we couldn't wear our NJROTC Area 12 rifle team championship t-shirts because they had crossed M-1903s Springfields on the pocket.

I couldn't wear my sister's Mallard Ball(sorority dance thing) because on the back it had a guy wearing camoflauge and using a pump gun on some ducks.

Spelled out clearly in the student hand book, no clothing depicting items banned on school grounds. So therefore, no weapons.

To the everlasting shame of my mother, I got suspended for a day for wearing a t-shirt with an A-10 Warthog on the back of it.

[MLeake]

Mack, my mother would not have been ashamed; she and my dad would have been in the principal's office that day - and the superintendant's and county commissioners' the next, if necessary, making dire predictions.

[SPEMack618]

Ah, forgot to mention, Mom was an assistant principal at the elementary school.

Small town, everybody knows everybody, that sort of deal.

[MLeake]

I am amazed a small town in GA would have such an asinine rule.

[SPEMack618]

Eh, of course it was rooted in good intention. As Mother explained to me, the rule was originally written to prevent students from wearing clothing with tobacco labels on it.

Sidenote: My poor mother had to deal with my sister getting a write up for wearing a camo Levi Garrett chewing tobacco hat during senior week.

However, in the time of zero tolerance, it of course was expanded to include weapons and such.

A couple years back, the rule was revised because of the growing population of Browning hats with the 14-18 year old male redneck population.

Still no shirts with guns, booze, or tobacco though.

Heck, in NJROTC we couldn't wear our utilities on school grounds because of a no camo rule.

[Dashunde]

Ugh.. I'm really dreading my daughter starting school in 4 years... I think I'm going to be aggrivated from there on.

[MRYANJ99]

I can kind of see the point of the school, given recent events and the media deamonizing the NRA. I don't agree with it, but I can see where they are coming from. But to suspend or even arrest a kid for what he is wearing is insanity.

The question is did the school freak out because the shirt had a picture of a gun on it or because it promoted the NRA? If his shirt depiced a famous scene from a movie like Scarface or Pulp Fiction that features a gun, would it have been a big deal? It sounds like the anti gunners are trying to make an example of this kid for his support of the NRA.

[coldbeer]

Sounds like the teacher has a chip on his shoulder. He should of just let it go like the rest of the faculty did instead making a fool of himself. Someone should organize a national NRA T-shirt day.

[noelf2]

Could be the school has a "no policital" garments rule. No pro gay / anti gay; no pro abortion / anti abortion; no pro liberal / ant....... Uh, nevermind, I just realized my mistake.

[lcpiper]

you're not helping with statements like this

He's helping me. Maybe not you, but he is helping me.

Read the byline of this forum, "The leading online forum for firearms enthusiasts".

That is who he is addressing, not the school board, the District Attorneys' Office, the Mayor, or the PTA.

[Metal god]

We do not know the whole story and what all transpired . Although not the same this sounds a lot like the Trevon Martin case . This kid was doing nothing wrong but hanging out . Then a teacher comes up and confronts him with no legal cause . The kids says no I will not comply I'm doing nothing wrong . Teacher then says what ever and it just escalates from there . With out knowing all that happened after the first volley of words . Who knows how out of hand it got and if at some point there was real disruption in the school . IMO the kid was never in the wrong there fore all his actions were in defense of his rights . To have him arrested is way over the top . At worst they should have just called the parents and had them come get him .

When I say we don't know the whole story , what if a teacher or other faculty member touched the kid or grabbed at the shirt to remove it . Because he never did anything wrong in the first place . Can he fight back , cause a seen so they stop ? I'm curios to see where the disruption accured . As far as I can tell the diruption was started by a teacher doing something they never should have .

[lcpiper]

It doesn't matter.

What matters is that Friday he was arrested and suspended.

But he wasn't charged so the DA isn't backing the school.

Monday he is back in school with the same shirt on and now the school is all mum about it. The family has a lawyer involved who just happens to have run or is running for the Board of Education. And there are other kids wearing NRA shirts at school as well.

I don't need much more then that to figure out that the school tried to bully this kid into taking off this shirt and they were wrong. They had no grounds, the DA has refused to back them. And now the town is throwing it in the school's face.

[scrubcedar]

^ what lc said.

[kilimanjaro]

Throw it back in their face. The teacher is a bully and a bigot, who threw his personal culture in the face of the community and now will hopefully pay a price. Even if the result is a settlement in tax dollars, the community can ask why is a teacher still employed in that district, etc., etc.

[lcpiper]

Edited:

I didn't miss this but I didn't point it out earlier either.

The Associated Press typically does not identify juveniles who face criminal charges, but Marcum and his family wanted his name and case known.

Just one more thing that shows us that this kids Mom and Pop are all right.

[TomL]

I'm not seeing any connection/similarity to Trevon Martin and a kid wearing a T-Shirt? Did I miss something in all the posts I just read? Has there been actual evidence released documenting that the neighborhood watch guy deliberatly provoked the altercation that led to one man stopping another from busting his head open on the concrete sidewalk?

[Evan Thomas]

I think Metal god's point was that the cases are similar in that we don't know exactly what happened in either.

That said, discussion of the Zimmerman case is off-topic.

[lcpiper]

Has there been actual evidence released

Nope, still waiting on the trial.

He was only drawing a correlation between a narrow aspect of the two incidents. Maybe a weak one at that. No biggie.

[Double Naught Spy]

West Virginia teen arrested for wearing NRA shirt to school

You know, the article cited in the OP doesn't even claim this. He was not arrested for wearing a NRA shirt. The NRA shirt was salient to the problem, but was not the reason for the arrest. Holy cow.

[Evan Thomas]

The article reports that young Mr. Marcum was arrested for "disrupting an educational process and obstructing an officer" by refusing to remove the T-shirt. It seems to me that in this context, wearing a T-shirt, as opposed to refusing to remove it, is a distinction without a difference. The only educational process that he seems to have disrupted was the one that involved school officials' insisting that he should do as he was told, regardless of whether he was breaking any rules in the first place.

[jmr40]

Anything that disrupts classes is not allowed. It never has been, but the standards of what disrupts classes has changed over the years. When I was a student a pocket knife, or even a shotgun in a truck in the parking lot would not have raised an eyebrow. But back in the 60's and 70's a lot of kids were suspended for long hair and short skirts. That shirt would have gotten me suspended in 1974 too. Not because of the message, but because it had no collar.

This kid was suspended because he knowing challenged a school rule to draw attention to his beliefs. He was arrested for disorderly conduct because he refused to follow the police officers instructions. This is not a gun rights argument. The same thing would have happened if he were wearing a pro life shirt, gay pride shirt, a PETA shirt, or anything that would have caused controversy at school.

And it is not a 1st amendment issue. He has the right to express his 1st amendment rights all he wants. He can write it in a book, a newspaper editorial, he can go on TV or radio. He can even wear his shirt and carry a sign on the side of the road. But he doesn't have the right to walk into the street and block traffic to force his opinions on me. Nor does his 1st amendment rights allow him to disrupt others right to an education.

You go to school to learn. I'm all for gun rights, but people like this don't help us.

[zxcvbob]

Hard to believe how wrong some people are.

[scrubcedar]

Jmr, this was not long hair or short skirt, this was not animal rights or gay pride. This was about a t-shirt that supported our constitutional rights which does make it different. This is what they are supposed to be teaching not ignoring and finding disruptive to have mentioned. That makes it unalterably different right there. This is a part of our constitution not a political movement or new hair style. To lump those things together belittles our system of government.

Aside from that can you seriously say if this had been a National Press Club t-shirt with a computer symbol saying "protect your rights" the teacher would have found it disruptive? After that we can talk about a t-shirt with a copy of a search warrant mentioning the fourth amendment and "protect your rights". Explain to me how that would have escalated to this point. That is the exact phrase on the t-shirt in question. If it is not offensive to support the first or fourth amendment then it should not be offensive to support the second amendment. Anything other than this show's a clear bias and should mean that the authority figure in question needs a good looking at.

If we don't fight tooth and nail for these rights, let me assure you we will lose them.

[Tom Servo]

Nor does his 1st amendment rights allow him to disrupt others right to an education.

Actually, I'm not finding a right to government-provided education in the Bill of Rights, or anywhere in the Constitution for that matter. There is, however, a very clear protection for the right to speak one's mind, which the courts have found is particularly acute when such speech involves political issues.

Furthermore, I'm in agreement with Vanya: it was a shirt. In and of itself, it was not disruptive in any way. The only thing disrupting the educational process was the reaction of staff and law enforcement.

[lcpiper]

JMR, given the info presented in the report, I have to disagree

This is not a gun rights argument. The same thing would have happened if he were wearing a pro life shirt, gay pride shirt, a PETA shirt, or anything that would have caused controversy at school.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

There doesn't seem to be any justification, given the School District's dress code, for the teacher to have bothered this boy about his shirt.

And Logan, West Virginia is sufficiently removed from Newtown, Connecticut that the teacher can't even claim the kid was being insensitive. Wearing that shirt last week while congress was in session debating the issue shows a willingness to be involved. This should be encouraged by educators, not used as grounds for harassment when the person in question stands on the other side of ones personal line of beliefs.

The teacher was wrong, the school was wrong. They are finding out how wrong they were as this plays out.