T-Shirt Times

SAINT CLOUD, Fla. — Two Osceola County parents said their son was humiliated at school when he was suspected of wearing "gang-style" clothing. Saint Cloud Middle School said only a handful of students were searched last week when they got a complaint.

The parents told Eyewitness News, if their son was wearing low baggy pants or a bandana, by all means he should have been sent home, but he wasn’t. He was wearing a Florida Gators t-shirt.

Robert and Sara Crosby can’t understand how their son could be connected to gang activity, especially by wearing a Gators t-shirt.

"Embarrassed. He was very upset. He said he kept asking the police officer if he looked like a gang member," Sara Crosby said.

The 7th grader wore blue jeans and a Gators shirt to school last week, on a day Saint Cloud Middle School just happened to be on the lookout for students donning so-called gang colors.

Sara Crosby said the school never told her about the search.

"I don’t think it’s fair what they’re doing. The parents have no notice of what’s going on," she said.

Osceola County Schools said the school doesn’t have to notify parents, because it’s a safety issue. A spokesperson for the school system also couldn’t confirm or deny Crosby’s son was searched.

Sara said her son was forced to change into his gym shirt.

"And that’s what he had to wear all day," she said.

Seventh grader David Polito said he saw another student targeted for wearing a simple t-shirt.

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Schools act when slogans get too racy for classrooms

By Rob Rogers

The move was creative and certainly enterprising.

Shasta High School senior Taylor Jackson had designed and created the T-shirts himself and managed to sell a few to students, parents and a handful of teachers before the administration put a stop to it.

"Pimps wear purple," the shirts read across the front. "What you reppin’" was splashed across the back.

They were also emblazoned with the school’s logo.

Principal Milan Woollard said the problem was that students were selling the T-shirts at school and they had the school logo on them. Both are against school policy.

But, he said, "The real problem is the inappropriate nature of the message."

Whether homemade or store-bought, more school administrators are finding themselves confronted with T-shirts that are more provocative, suggestive and blatantly sexual than in the past.

Compared with other slogans, "Pimps wear purple" can seem mild. A selection of T-shirts at the Mt. Shasta Mall include such phrases as "Let’s be friends. With benefits," "Your Mom. Upside Down. Wow" and "You Must Be This Tall to Ride." Another — "Bang Me" beneath an illustration of a drum kit — comes in baby doll sizes for girls.

"It always comes down to judgment," said Kyle Turner, principal at Foothill High School.

If the T-shirt is offensive, distracting, inflammatory or bears the logo or image of tobacco or alcohol products, it’s banned from campus.

"Obviously from our standpoint, we don’t want to offend," Turner said. But, "bottom line, we’re here to educate and not give out style points."

At school, a healthy learning environment is the most important, many educators said. Anything that takes away from that will be challenged by administrators.

"If it’s a disruption to the learning process, that’s where we step in," Turner said.

This year, Turner said the school had had relatively few incidents of students wearing inappropriate T-shirts to school. When it does happen, the shirt is usually confiscated and the parent has to come in, sign for it and take it home.

That way, Turner said, the parents are involved and have motivation not to let their child attend school in inappropriate clothing.

But parental involvement isn’t always to the administrators’ liking.

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SAN DIEGO — A federal judge has ruled in favor of Poway school officials in the case of siblings who claimed their constitutional rights were violated when one of them was pulled from class for wearing a T-shirt deriding homosexuality as "shameful."

U.S. District Court Judge John Houston on Wednesday granted the Poway Unified School District’s request for a judgement in its favor on every legal claim that Kelsie Harper, 16, a junior at the high school, raised in the lawsuit.

Her brother, 18-year-old Tyler Chase Harper, who goes by his middle name, was dismissed from the lawsuit because he already has graduated from Poway High School, the judge ruled, according to the North County Times and San Diego Union-Tribune.

Houston relied on a 2006 appeals court decision in the same case to find that the school’s actions did not infringe on students’ rights of free speech, free exercise of religion, nor were they hostile to a particular religious viewpoint, according to the Union-Tribune.

That 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which centered on Poway High’s dress code, is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices are expected to decide in the next three weeks whether they will consider the case.

Although Wednesday’s ruling brings an end to the lawsuit at the trial court, appeals of some issues still are pending, and an appeal of Wednesday’s decision to a higher court is expected.

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A Melbourne man is seeking legal advice after Qantas stopped him from boarding a flight because he was wearing a T-shirt that depicted US President George W Bush as a terrorist.

Qantas officials told Allen Jasson his T-shirt was offensive and could cause a security risk, as he tried to board a London bound flight from Melbourne.

Mr Jasson says Mr Bush has led an illegal war in Iraq.

The 55-year-old says it is his democratic right to express a political view.

"It’s not about affronting anyone and it’s certainly not an offensive statement," he said.

Melbourne QC and civil liberties advocate Robert Richter says the ban is outrageous.

"You see T-shirts like that on the streets of New York and you don’t see American police telling people to take off their T-shirts," he said.

Qantas says it will allow Mr Jasson to board another flight, as long as he removes the T-shirt.

The IT specialist says the T-shirt merely expresses his view that the US-led war in Iraq is illegal.

"It’s an important statement," he said.

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By WENDY COLE

It’s been ages since the T-shirt was just an article of clothing. Having succeeded as a convenient vehicle for every conceivable political and commercial slogan, the threads themselves are becoming the newest message, logically enough.

At Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, undergrad entrepreneurs have begun hawking a line of 100% cotton tees with the catchphrase "I know who made my t-shirt? Do you?" If you don’t know, here’s the answer: Workers seeking to improve their lives in sub-Saharan African countries like Lesotho, Uganda and Tanzania with few other opportunities for sustainable employment. These workers, according to the students, are getting fair wages and working in clean facilities, and no children are exploited in the process.

As part of the business school’s just-launched social entrepreneurship program, the undergraduate vendors have teamed with an organization that knows a few things about socially responsible marketing: Edun Apparel is a clothing line started in 2005 by U2’s Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, which aims to bring fair employment practices to the fashion industry. "Bono and Ali are both committed to the mission that trade is more important than aid," said Edun CEO Christian Kemp-Griffin.

Timing is key in the success of any new venture, and the surging popularity of fair-trade coffee and other organic brands surely makes it easier to communicate the importance of ethically made clothing to prospective customers. American Apparel has already found success with its commitment to "sweatshop-free" cotton manufacturing in downtown Los Angeles. Workers, including many immigrants, are paid an average of $12 an hour, can buy affordable health insurance and receive free English lessons. A recent study of the buying habits of so-called Millennials, by Cone Inc. found that 69% of 13- to 25-year-olds consider a company’s social and environmental commitment when deciding where to shop, and 83% will trust a company more if it is socially and environmentally responsible.

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Cathryn Scott, Western Mail

FIRST there was the dress made from the Welsh flag, famously sported by Shirley Bassey and copied by Welsh women across the country.

Then came the highly-sought- after, red-and-white Valley Boy and Valley Girl T-shirts at the height of the 1990s’ Cool Cymru.

But now 2007 signals a new generation of Welsh clothing made to designer standards, with the launch of a range of politicised slogan T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and jackets.

Designed by Cardiff-born writer and artist Martin Davies - a good friend of Stereophonics bassist Richard Jones, who has modelled for the exclusive shots on this page - the Red Dragonhood label draws on hundreds of years of history as well as referencing current political topics.

The range of 30 or so designsfor men and women features such tongue-in-cheek logos as the word Rhondda in the form of the Honda logo because the Valleys community is notorious for motorbike thefts.

There’s Tiger Bay Whalers - a spoof sporting shirt that also references Bob Marley’s Wailers backing band, in light of the Bay’s lively musical heritage.

And the Dai Lama T-shirt was created especially with Jones in mind as he has a huge interest in Buddhism.

But it is the more controversial and nationalistic designs that are sure to spark debate.

Yet rather than intensify Anglo-Welsh tensions, Davies says his aim is to let Welsh people know that the origins of one of our most recognisable symbols has nothing to do with Wales.

He says, "The three feathers is the national symbol of our rugby team but it’s actually a symbol that dates back to the Black Prince. So it’s nothing to do with Wales. I got cross when I realised what this actually meant."

It’s the fact that so few people know the origins of such Welsh emblems that prompted Davies to launch his company in the first place.

"It started from one night in Paris after a Stereophonics gig. Kelly Jones was asking me about Welsh history and I seemed to know all the answers that no-one else did.
 
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