In West Virginia, Jared Marcum, an eighth grader, was suspended and astonishingly arrested in April after he refused to remove a t-shirt supporting the National Rifle Association.
Now in what I would say and most
people would agree as very courageous, the 14-year old Jared returned back to
Logan Middle School in, West Va., wearing exactly the same shirt,
which depicts a hunting rifle with the statement “Protect your right.”
According to Fox News, other students across
the rural county showed their support for Marcum by wearing similar shirts to
school as well. “There’s a lot of people wearing this same
exact shirt, great support and I really appreciate it,” Marcum
said that morning outside the schoolhouse door, according to a local NCB
affiliate WBOY-TV.
Marcum’s attorney, Ben White, said that school
officials are sticking by the eighth grader’s one-day suspension because, they
say, he caused a disruption. “Their version is that the suspension was for
disrupting the educational process, not the shirt,” White told Fox News. I'm
pretty sure time and effort could have been used in a better manner to prevent
a further disruption with the incident than a so-called suspension of "the
problem". Maybe that's why I'm not getting paid to serve as an school official, huh? LOL.
White has as well called the school’s position into
question. He argues that his client was exercising his free speech rights. Marcum’s
version of events is that he had worn the shirt for several hours already without
incident. So at lunchtime, a teacher confronted him about
the shirt. When Marcum said that he would not take off the shirt or turn it inside
out, the teacher began yelling, which caused an unnecessary scene in the cafeteria.
As what I would
think most of my readers would agree, this is the catalyst that ensued the
event from the start. I mean, a pile of wood isn’t a fire until you strike a
match to it, right? I believe the teacher was acting beyond the perspective
of his employment and was promoting his/her personal agenda. As the school did
contain cameras, the video shows students stepping up on benches and
the tables in the lunchroom as kids started jumped up and clapping, when they eventually escorted Jared out of
building.
The police chief in Logan City, E.K.
Harper, said that Marcum was arrested for the disruption he caused at school: “His
conduct in school almost incited a riot.” Not too sure about you guys, but when was the last first time you heard of some eight graders inciting a riot? White, the lawyer, added that Marcum
wore the shirt to express his support for the Second Amendment. So in light of
not officially breaking any school regulations or inciting any disturbance, who
would be observed as the wrongdoer? White
also said the school’s dress code does not forbid such shirts. A
straightforward reading of the dress code would seem to leave that
interpretation out. Although, the dress code, which is posted online, does forbid certain
kinds of clothing. For example, the dress code prohibits messages that support violence, discrimination
and alcohol use, but nowhere are displaying constitutional rights mentioned.
So as Marcum and his supporters returned
back to school the following Monday, they were not arrested or suspended for
wearing the pro-gun shirts. I wonder how is that more individuals doing the same thing are somehow any less of a threat than one student. White still expects the charges to be
dropped, and he says a civil lawsuit is forthcoming.
Marcum’s arrest and suspension is the
latest incident of anti-gun hysteria to erupt in a school setting, but there have
been many others in the last few months.
