Student’s T-Shirt Considered Offensive
Officials: Disciplinary action based on more than shirt’s message
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK — School officials have taken disciplinary action against an eighth-grade student whose T-shirt was deemed offensive by his teacher.
But it wasn’t the T-shirt alone that brought about the action, officials said.
The male student at Churchill Junior High School wore a shirt Dec. 6 with the message, “If you see the police, warn a brother.” The boy was sent to the office by his last-period teacher, who deemed the message offensive.
School Principal Mark Sutor then met with the student and asked him to remove the shirt, but the boy reportedly would not.
The school’s police officer was called in because the boy was “somewhat disruptive,” according to East Brunswick Police Lt. Robert Strempek. The boy was ultimately taken into custody and brought to the police station. His mother picked him up there later.
The police had not charged the boy with any offense as of early this week, but Strempek said police were still investigating the matter.
School officials last week found themselves clarifying what they described as misinformation that the student was suspended from school because of the T-shirt.
Superintendent of Schools Jo Ann Magistro issued a statement during the Dec. 7 Board of Education meeting, saying details could not be disclosed because the matter is considered confidential. Her statement was apparently in response to an article in that day’s Star-Ledger regarding the incident.
Quoting the student’s mother, the Star-Ledger reported that the Churchill Junior High School student was given a nine-day suspension for wearing the shirt to school.
School officials, however, said there was more to it.
More…
http://ebs.gmnews.com/news/2006/1214/Schools/014.html
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