T-Shirt Times

By JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER

Back in the 1980s, Shirley Goldberg cooked up an award-winning concept for a custom-made T-shirt store that kept her on the retail menu at Willowbrook Mall for more than 20 years.

But her store, Dine A Shirt, modeled after a 1950s style diner, won’t be on the mall’s menu after Monday. The store, which over the years has photographed tens of thousands of North Jersey babies and toddlers and emblazoned them on T-shirts, hats and coffee mugs for Father’s Day, Christmas and birthday presents, is going out of business.

The store’s lease expired this month, and owner Goldberg said the mall plans to use her space to make room for other tenants. Goldberg was one of the last independent merchants at Willowbrook, which like other large regional malls has been replacing "mom and pop" shops with national tenants.

Goldberg has been through this before. In the 1990s she also had a Dine A Shirt store at Garden State Plaza in Paramus. The store was so popular that the mall had to put up guide ropes to control the lines that snaked around the store before holidays. But in 1999, the new owner of the mall, Westfield, made a deal with a national apparel chain that wanted Dine A Shirt’s prime center-court location, and Goldberg had to give up that store when her lease expired.

Goldberg, who also owns two other stores at Westfield Garden State Plaza — Perfect Together, a jewelry store, and Perfect Accent, a bridal and special occasion shop — isn’t bitter about having to make way again for a mall’s marketing plan.

"Things change," she said. "We’re going to come back with something new, just wait."

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By JOHN MARTIN
Courier & Press staff writer

Harrison High School officials on Friday put the kibosh on T-shirts that swim team members wore to honor a deceased teammate.

Katelyn Beck, 17, was killed in March in an SUV crash near Lafayette, Ind. Beck’s mother, who was driving, was injured.

Beck’s teammates on Harrison’s swim and dive team celebrated senior night activities on Thursday. The 20 or so boys and girls unveiled T-shirts for the occasion which read, "Kick Butt for Katelyn" on the back.

Students then wore them to school Friday.

Harrison Principal Janet Leistner said some teachers complained to her about the "Kick Butt" message on the shirts.

She met with the swimmers and ordered them to change.

Leistner said she told the team members that "I want to honor Katelyn any way we can," but she thought the words were inappropriate and did not adhere to Harrison’s dress code, which forbids offensive messages.

She said she advised the students to "put (the shirts) away, keep them and have them," but don’t wear them to school.

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By BETTY ADAMS
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA — A children’s T-shirt has aroused the ire of a local shopper.
The T-shirt depicts two panels of stick figures, with a male figure pushing a female figure out of a box. Captioned "Problem Solved," the shirt has appalled people engaged in deterring domestic violence.

"I thought that shirt was very offensive, and I’m sure people who made that shirt thought it was cute," District Attorney Evert Fowle said Friday. "But when you prosecute 728 domestic violence cases a year, it’s not cute."

The shirt was removed briefly after a customer protested — but later returned to the shelves of the Augusta Kmart.

Earlier this week, Kristin Aiello of Hallowell told Kmart store manager Joyce Beane the message on the shirt was offensive.

"I see so much domestic abuse in our community," said Aiello, a lawyer who frequently represents children involved in the court system. "I see children in jeopardy."

Aiello said the shirt sends the wrong message to the young wearers.

"It affirms that this sort of a solution is OK," she said. "A child can’t filter it the way adults can."

Beane pulled the shirts Tuesday. On Friday, she referred all questions to corporate headquarters.

By late Friday, Kimberly Freely, manager of corporate relations for Sears Holdings Corp., Kmart’s parent company, said the Augusta Kmart will continue to sell the shirts, manufactured by Route 66 clothing company.

"We respect the opinions of our customers," Freely said in a statement issued from corporate headquarters. "However, we believe these attitude Ts are meant to be light-hearted in nature.

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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.

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Mark Dunn

AN Australian was barred from a London-Melbourne flight unless he removed a T-shirt depicting George Bush as the world’s number one terrorist.

Allen Jasson was also prevented from catching a connecting flight within Australia later the same day unless he removed the offending T-shirt.

Mr Jasson says Qantas and Virgin Blue were engaging in censorship but the airlines say the T-shirt was a security issue and could affect the sensitivities of other passengers.

"The woman at the security check-in (at Heathrow) just said to me, `You are not wearing that’," Mr Jasson, 55, said yesterday.

Mr Jasson, who lives in London and was flying to Australia to visit family on December 2, said he was first told he would need to turn the T-shirt inside-out before he would be allowed to board the Qantas flight.

"I told her I had the right to express my opinion," he said.

"She called other security and other people got involved. Ultimately, they said it was a security issue . . . in light of the present situation."

After a prolonged argument about freedom of speech and expression, Mr Jasson said a Qantas gate manager said he could not fly at all unless he wore another T-shirt.

Mr Jasson said his clothing had already been checked in and he was forced to buy a new T-shirt – this time with London Underground written on it – coincidentally the site of a terrorist attack last year.

"I felt I had made my point and caved in," Mr Jasson said.

But after arriving in Australia, Mr Jasson said he put his Bush T-shirt back on and was again banned from boarding a connecting flight – this time a Virgin Blue plane from Adelaide to Melbourne.

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LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — Residents who were told to remove T-shirts with slogans opposing Wal-Mart at a zoning meeting last week will be allowed to wear them at another meeting Monday, the city manager said.

The city had enacted a rule last week barring signs and placards at the meeting in the interest of holding a civil, courteous hearing on plans for a new Wal-Mart, City Manager Jim Woods said Su