An eighth-grader who was suspended from school and led away in handcuffs by police after an argument with a teacher over his NRA T-shirt returned to school this week – wearing that same shirt that started all the fuss.
Other students in Logan, W.Va., wore NRA T-shirts to school Monday in solidarity with 14-year-old Jared Marcum.
Jared said he wore the shirt because he wanted to make a stand for the Second Amendment. When a teacher told him during lunch to take it off or wear it inside out, he said he tried to engage him in debate. He has told media outlets that he was not aggressive.
The T-shirt featured a hunting rifle and a logo for the National Rifle Association with the words, “Protect Your Right.”
The school’s dress code states that clothing cannot display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages, or sexually suggestive phrases or advertisements for alcohol, tobacco, or drug products. It doesn’t mention the NRA or images of guns.
"My belief is that if the teacher could have applied some common sense and say, 'I think that violates the dress code. Let me check with the dress code,'" Jared’s lawyer Ben White told
ABCNews.com.
White said he has requested a copy of the video surveillance camera that likely captured the original confrontation and that a civil suit is planned.
ABC reports that Logan City Police Chief E.K. Harper said the teen wasn’t arrested for wearing the T-shirt, but "disrupting the school process."
"His conduct in school almost incited a riot," Harper told ABC.
Jared’s lawyer denies that, saying that video evidence will show that students did get onto lunchroom tables as the teen was being taken from the building by officers, “Kids jumped up, clapping. Teachers said to get off and be quiet, and they did."
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