T-Shirt Times

By Stephen Kershnar

The Supreme Court recently (March 19, 2007) heard Morse v. Frederick, a Supreme Court case about free speech for high school students.

The case arose in January 2002, when Coca-Cola and other private sponsors supported a “Winter Olympics Day.” An 18-year-old high school student, Joseph Frederick, didn’t go to school and later attended the rally for the Winter Olympics Torch Relay. Fellow students joined him since the students were released from class that day so that they could watch the Olympic torch pass by. There were fistfights and snowball fights at this “educational” event, but Frederick and his friends did not participate. Instead, they unfurled a 14-foot “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS” banner to get on TV. He took the phrase from a snowboard and viewed it as meaningless. I checked with my brother and he confirmed that this slogan is funny.

There is controversy over whether the students were on a field trip or other supervised event. The students did not have to obtain parental permission slips as would be required for such an event and were permitted to leave the rally. Nonetheless the Juneau school claimed that at the rally the school was in session (they must have done a few hits).

The principal, Deborah Morse, then grabbed and crumpled the banner. She later suspended Frederick for ten days. He says she suspended him for five and then doubled it when he quoted Thomas Jefferson, she denies this. The principal and school conceded that the display did not disrupt nor was expected to disrupt classroom work, but was shut down because it advocated illegal drug use.

Frederick then sued Morse and the school board because, he says, it violated his free-speech rights. He also sued Morse arguing that his rights were so clearly established that Morse was not entitled to legal immunity.

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MONTREAL (CP) - T-shirt maker Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSX:GIL) will cut more than 1,800 jobs in North America as it moves the last of its manufacturing to Central America and the Caribbean to challenge Asian competitors.

The company’s stock gained about two per cent to an all-time high after Gildan said it will shut down its two remaining textile plants in Montreal as well as a cutting facility in Bombay, N.Y., and two sewing factories in Mexico.

President and CEO of Gildan Activewear Glenn Chamandy.(CPimages/Ryan Remiorz) "We need to have a low cost base in order to be cost-effective with the Asian competitors," company vice-president Cam Gentile said Tuesday.

Gentile pointed to intense price competition from countries like Bangladesh, and said it costs $3 more to make a dozen T-shirts in North America than in Central America.

Before Tuesday’s announcement, more than 90 per cent of Gildan’s underwear, sock, activewear and finishing production was already done in countries such as Honduras and the Dominican Republic, where the company has invested in state-of-the-art technology.

The company expects the latest moves to save US$45 million in annual manufacturing, freight and duty costs.

The Montreal-based company said 390 employees in Canada, 75 in the United States and 1,365 in Mexico will lose their jobs as it finishes shrinking its North American operations. Last September, Gildan announced 550 job cuts in the Montreal area and in the United States, where it has a plant in Bombay, N.Y.

A Gildan spokeswoman said the company remains committed to keeping its head office in Montreal, although the personnel will move to another location.

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MADRID - A woman who lost her husband in the 2004 Madrid train bombings displayed an infamous cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad on her T-shirt in front of 29, mostly Muslim, suspects on trial for the attacks today.

The woman’s white T-shirt showed Mohammad wearing a bomb as a turban — one of a series published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which unleashed violent protests by some Muslims last year.

Ten bombs ripped through four commuter trains on March 11, 2004, killing 191 people — attacks which public prosecutors blame on a group of Islamist militants inspired by al-Qaeda.

The woman sat in the front row of the court wearing the T-shirt for around half-an-hour before getting up, walking up to the glass cage containing the defendants and finally walking out of the court, judicial sources said.

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Unofficial group lies low - for now

By Abigail Eagye
Aspen, CO Colorado

ASPEN — Almost a year ago, historic preservationist Les Holst helped bring the community together with a simple mission and a simple garment: white T-shirts.

But since the City Council implemented a building moratorium April 25 of last year, the White Shirts, who originally made an impression by turning out in large numbers, dwindled to the occasional handful of white specks at city meetings, and they haven’t been spotted at all of late.

But that doesn’t mean they’ve been blotted out.

According to Holst and several other locals who donned the familiar "I (heart) Aspen" T-shirts, the group has already achieved its mission - to send a message to the council that citizens are fed up with the pace of construction in Aspen. Or was it the quality of new development? Or the loss of historic landmarks?

Holst says the group’s members have a wide range of hot-button issues, and it wasn’t necessarily any one point they rallied around. He doubts everyone who ever suited up in one of his T-shirts would agree on all topics, but all had reached a breaking point in feeling as if they were losing the Aspen they loved.

Even if there’s still work to be done, Holst says the White Shirts have already succeeded.

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TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (AP) — For a coffee shop, T-shirts of a Mormon angel with java flowing into his trumpet are selling well. But they don’t have the blessing of religious leaders.

The shirts have upset the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not only is Moroni a revered figure - Mormons believe he appeared to church founder Joseph Smith - but LDS members are discouraged from drinking coffee.

The shirts show the angel Moroni, a male figure in a robe blowing a trumpet. The trumpet is turned up at an angle as coffee is poured in.

"They’ve been the best-selling T-shirts we’ve ever done," said Just Add Coffee co-owner Ed Beazer.

The church informed Beazer that the angel’s image is a registered trademark.

"If they provide proof, we’re going to comply," Beazer said. "We don’t want to break any laws or anything."

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By KEvin Courtney

When I talked a year ago to Steve Rodrigues, owner of Val’s Liquors on Third Street, he was full of plans. "My goal is to clean up the store and bring in new products and make it more of a neighborhood-friendly store," he said.

This struck me as a noble effort. The neighborhood, which borders downtown’s homeless zone, needed help.

Thus my surprise a few weeks ago when I ran into a fuming Terry Mulgannon, a former magazine editor, now an amateur historian.

"I’m no prude," Mulgannon said. "I have no problem with whatever people want to do as long as they’re discreet."

What had him riled was the new assortment of X-rated T-shirts at Val’s. It’s one thing for a shirt to say porn star or make humorous reference to the size of a certain male organ, but quite another to scream the F word, he said.

The shirts that offended Mulgannon were not displayed in the back by the Hustler and Hot Legs magazines. They hung by the front door. They were the first thing a customer saw, he said.

While Val’s has a predominantly adult clientele, kids go in all the time for ice cream, chips and other snacks, he said. Why should young ones be greeted by one of the most pungent vulgarities in the English language? Why should anyone? he said.

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