Gresham eighth grader suspended for refusing to remove fallen soldier t-shirt-- Demi Tomasides

Alan Holmes, an eighth grader at Dexter McCarty Middle School in Gresham, Oregon, has been suspended on the account of not taking off a support-the-military T-shirt with a gun on it. The shirt said "Standing for those who stood for us." while depicting boots, a helmet, and a gun. The school believed that it was "inappropriate" to wear a shirt depicting weapons during school hours, but when Holmes's dad got the call to come pick his son up for refusing to take it off, he was equally firm in standing his ground. Alan's brother was in the military so this shirt is more than just a clothing item. It represents his pride and support for everything that his brother and his comrades do everyday.

I think the fact that this is even a problem is absolutely outrageous and I'm pretty sure the author did, too, because the article didn't give much support to the school's verdict and reasoning. This has taken place right after the Oregon shooting, so the sensitivity of the subject matter is understandable, but I don't think these two senarios are even on the same playing field. The shirt is obviously a military support shirt and the gun is not even the most predominant part of it. The part that stands out most are the words, "Standing for those that stood for us." This shirt wasn't about guns. It was about the men and women that risk their lives for us every day. This situation really goes down to our basic rights, conveniently written out for us by our Founding Fathers. In the First Amendment James Madison writes, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Or abridging the freedom of speech, people. Freedom. Of speech. While it might not have been in his school's law to wear that shirt, it most certainly was in his country's law and even more so in his "self law", defended by his unalienable rights. Beat that Dexter McCarthy Middle School. And now that I'm thinking of it, that's a whole other problem on our hands... schools repressing some of the same rights naturally given to us the moment we were born. Maybe next time, blog. Maybe next time.

http://www.kptv.com/story/30225044/gresham-eighth-grader-suspended-for-an-image-on-his-t-shirt