Teen arrested for wearing NRA shirt

[mike rossi]

 

A West Virginia teen arrested and accused of nearly inciting a riot after a confrontation with a teacher over his National Rifle Association t-shirt has inspired dozens of students across his county to wear similar apparel in solidarity.

Jared Marcum, 14, had a confrontation Thursday with a Logan Middle School teacher over his NRA t-shirt, which bears the organization's logo, along with an image of a hunting rifle and the phrase, "Protect your right."

Marcum's lawyer, Ben White, said that when the teen was told to remove the shirt or turn it inside out, he attempted to engage the teacher in a debate.

"Jared respects firearms and has training to use them, and believes in the Second Amendment," White told ABCNews.com. "He believes it's being threatened by current legislation. He wore [the shirt] as an expression of political speech and the need to protect the Second Amendment."

White said that Marcum had been wearing the shirt without causing any problems from homeroom at the beginning of the school day through fifth period, and was confronted by one of the school's teachers while getting his lunch. When Jared refused to remove or reverse the shirt, the teacher began to raise his voice, and it caught the attention of students eating their lunch, White said.

Marcum was eventually arrested and taken away by police after refusing to remove the shirt. White said that when police told the teen they were going to arrest him, he stuck his hands out and said, "Fine."

Logan City Police Chief E.K. Harper told ABCNews.com that Marcum was not arrested for wearing a t-shirt, but for "disrupting the school process."

"His conduct in school almost incited a riot," Harper said.

Marcum was not put in jail, Harper said, and was released to his mother after less than 30 minutes at the police station -- normal procedure for a juvenile arrest.

White said that charges being filed against Marcum are pending the prosecutor's office's review of the evidence. But he insisted that it was the teacher who caused the issue by confronting the teen, and that video gathered from the school will prove it.

"I believe the teacher was acting beyond the scope of his employment," he said. "What the video shows is that students did step up on the benches to the tables in the lunchroom when they were escorting Jared out of building. Kids jumped up, clapping. Teachers said to get off and be quiet, and they did."

Logan county schools' dress code, which is posted online, prohibits clothing and accessories that display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexual language, along with ads for alcohol, tobacco or drugs. There is no mention of the NRA or guns.

"My belief is that if the teacher could have applied some common sense and say, 'I think that violates the dress code. Let me check with the dress code,'" White said.

When contacted by ABCNews.com about the incident, Logan County Schools Superintendent Wilma Zigmond said that she was not at liberty to discuss students with the media, but indicated that more than the shirt led to the arrest.

"I don't think I've ever known of a student being suspended for a shirt," Zigmond said.

On top of his arrest and trip to the police station, Marcum was suspended from school for one day. This morning, he returned to school wearing the same t-shirt, White said.

White accompanied Marcum and his stepfather to a meeting at the school, where the principal, according to White, said that she "hates that it happened" to Marcum.

Logan County students wore NRA t-shirts today in solidarity with Marcum, White said, adding that Marcum is an honor roll student eyeing a career in the military. Zigmond did not mention any disciplinary action during school today.

White is confident that all of the evidence will work in the teenager's favor.

"There's no evidence that Jared almost caused a riot," he said. "They won't be able to produce any evidence to that fact. ... The teacher should have the ability to debate things with students. I don't care how you slice it. ... It was the teacher not acting like an adult. He created the issue."

[mike rossi]

I guess that is old news, here is more about it and other accounts of kids getting in trouble in schools for gun symbols:

 

The West Virginia eighth-grader who was suspended and, astonishingly, arrested last week after he refused to remove a t-shirt supporting the National Rifle Association returned to school on Monday.

In a move The Daily Caller can only characterize as courageous, 14-year-old Jared Marcum returned to Logan Middle School in Logan County, 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.

“There’s a lot of people wearing this same exact shirt, showing great, great support and I really appreciate it,” Marcum said in the morning outside the schoolhouse door, according to 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.

White has called the school’s position into question. He asserts that his client was exercising his free speech rights. As ABC News reports, Marcum’s version of events is that he had worn the shirt for several hours without incident.

At lunchtime, Marcum maintains, a teacher confronted him about the shirt. When Marcum said he would not take off the shirt or turn it inside out, the teacher began yelling, which caused a cafeteria scene.

“I believe the teacher was acting beyond the scope of his employment,” White told ABC. “What the video shows is that students did step up on the benches to the tables in the lunchroom when they were escorting Jared out of building. Kids jumped up, clapping.”

The police chief in Logan City (pop. 1,779) said that Marcum was arrested for the disruption he caused at school.

“His conduct in school almost incited a riot,” Chief E.K. Harper told ABC.

White added that Marcum wore the shirt to express his support for the Second Amendment. He said the school’s dress code does not forbid such shirts. A straightforward reading of the dress code would seem to bear that interpretation out. The dress code, which is posted online, forbids certain kinds of clothing — for example, messages that support violence, discrimination and alcohol use — but nowhere are constitutional rights mentioned.

Presumably, Marcum and his student supporters were not arrested or suspended for wearing the pro-gun shirts on Monday. However, it’s not entirely clear.

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. There have been many others in the last few months.

Officials at an elementary school in small-town Michigan impounded a third-grader boy’s batch of 30 homemade birthday cupcakes because they were adorned with green plastic figurines representing World War Two soldiers. The school principal branded the military-themed cupcakes “insensitive” in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. (RELATED: School confiscates third-grader’s cupcakes topped with toy soldiers)

At Genoa-Kingston Middle School in northeast Illinois, a teacher threatened an eighth-grader with suspension if he did not remove his t-shirt emblazoned with the interlocking rifles, a symbol of the United States Marines. (RELATED: Junior high teacher tells kid to remove Marines t-shirt or get suspended)

At Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, a student was suspended for two days because his teacher thought he shaped a strawberry, pre-baked toaster pastry into something resembling a gun. (RELATED: Second-grader suspended for having breakfast pastry shaped like a gun)

At Poston Butte High School in Arizona, a high school freshman was suspended for setting a picture of a gun as the desktop background on his school-issued computer. (RELATED: Freshman suspended for picture of gun)

At D. Newlin Fell School in Philadelphia, school officials reportedly yelled at a student and then searched her in front of her class after she was found with a paper gun her grandfather had made for her. (RELATED: Paper gun causes panic)

In rural Pennsylvania, a kindergarten girl was suspended for making a “terroristic threat” after she told another girl that she planned to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that bombards targets with soapy bubbles.

At Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Maryland, a six-year-old boy was suspended for making the universal kid sign for a gun, pointing at another student and saying “pow.” That boy’s suspension was later lifted and his name cleared. 

[Five Seasons]

i read the story on yahoo. sounds like an anti-gun teacher made a big deal about it. the kid was not violating school policy as only drugs, alcohol, sex etc type of shirts were not allowed with no mention of guns being against policy. the kid refused to remove the shirt, the cops were called. chargers will most likely be dropped by the DA. Win for the kid.

[mike rossi]

Winning a battle doesn't win a war. This country has subjected several generations to anti-hunting propaganda through cartoons and other means. Now, future generations are learning through the education system that guns are undesirable and illegitimate... This is how social change occurs, not overnight, but over generations....

 

 

[Five Seasons]

I dont really think there is as big an anti-hunter push out there as there used to be. The whole "green" movement has done a lot for organic and natural lifestyles. Hunting is as organic as it gets.

[mike rossi]

I am not sure I agree with that. I think they are more powerful than ever. The biggest reason is the mistake made by leaders of the sporting community in making hunting a partisan issue. To understand this, you need to separate hunting from the second amendment. The entire democratic party is a large machine to fight. Anti-hunters have realized that and they are playing that card - proof watch these videos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ATbuckhunter]

If my son was arrested for a shirt I would be off the wall. I cant stand how kids are getting in trouble for nonsense these days. 

[Five Seasons]

If my son was arrested for a shirt I would be off the wall. I cant stand how kids are getting in trouble for nonsense these days. 

 

the family has a lawsuit against the school. However, I believe both the charges and the lawsuit will be thrown out. But you have to realize the teacher took his own views into action which is not allowed. Had he flipped out at the kid for wearing a yamica or turban then we'd have a much different story on our hands wouldn't we? Again, there is nothing in the school's rules that prohibits guns on a shirt. If there was, then the kid deserved to be arrested... but there wasn't.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Belo

[WNYBuckHunter]

 If there was, then the kid deserved to be arrested...

 

Uh, ok there bub. A kid deserves to be arrested for refusing to take a shirt off because the school rules says he cant wear it? Get real.

[Five Seasons]

Uh, ok there bub. A kid deserves to be arrested for refusing to take a shirt off because the school rules says he cant wear it? Get real.

 

ok bub. what would you propose the school do when there is a scene resulting from someone that is breaking the rules? Remember genius, that arrested does not mean you get charged. But to think a teacher or someone else should confront and remove the problem is ridiculous. So what do you do when someone is being insubordinate and needs to be removed? you call the police. It's not that he's arrested for the shirt, it's that he has refused to correct the rule violation and has turned the situation into a volatile one.

[FLASHJR]

ok bub. what would you propose the school do when there is a scene resulting from someone that is breaking the rules? Remember genius, that arrested does not mean you get charged. But to think a teacher or someone else should confront and remove the problem is ridiculous. So what do you do when someone is being insubordinate and needs to be removed? you call the police. It's not that he's arrested for the shirt, it's that he has refused to correct the rule violation and has turned the situation into a volatile one.

i guess i am confused he did not break any rules the teacher just doesn't like guns or the NRA that is what i got out of the story.. please correct me if i misunderstood the story and what the kid got in trouble for.

[WNYBuckHunter]

ok bub. what would you propose the school do when there is a scene resulting from someone that is breaking the rules? Remember genius, that arrested does not mean you get charged. But to think a teacher or someone else should confront and remove the problem is ridiculous. So what do you do when someone is being insubordinate and needs to be removed? you call the police. It's not that he's arrested for the shirt, it's that he has refused to correct the rule violation and has turned the situation into a volatile one.

 

Did they call the cops on you for wearing a naughty tshirt in school? Its easy, you give the kid detention, suspension, something like that. Theres nothing in the article that said the kid was volitile or violent. Good lord.

[growalot]

To all of you now raising children in this screwed up society...please tell them not to  swallow their convictions or ability of independent thought...to be respectful in doing so......but do tell them when a teacher gets in their face...calmly say I need to call my parents...make sure you call and write the school informing them that in a disciplinary situation  that your child IS to  be allowed to call you and is NOT to be questioned until you are there...

It took me two run ins...then I did this....that put an end to my kid being a target

Edited April 24, 2013 by growalot

[Five Seasons]

no, but the yahoo article states the cafe became near riot like atmosphere. the kid did nothing wrong, but is it so hard for you to picture the scene in a highschool cafe with a bunch of teens getting all amped up in the drama. the only thing to do is remove him whether it's his fault or not. I can't believe everyone missed my first post. I'm fully supporting the kid. The teacher has a lawsuit against him, the charges will be dropped against the kid because the DA wont touch that case. But being arrested doesn't mean you're prosecuted. That's all i'm trying to get across. You don't give the kid detention when you have a teacher yelling at him and a bunch of kids jumping on tables. you neutralize the situation. there has to be some LEO's on here that can back me up.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

the teacher should have his/her life run through the ringer. I would love to see the NRA step up and take him/her on. Abuse of power and does not deserve to teach.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Culvercreek hunt club

[WNYBuckHunter]

no, but the yahoo article states the cafe became near riot like atmosphere. the kid did nothing wrong, but is it so hard for you to picture the scene in a highschool cafe with a bunch of teens getting all amped up in the drama. the only thing to do is remove him whether it's his fault or not. I can't believe everyone missed my first post. I'm fully supporting the kid. The teacher has a lawsuit against him, the charges will be dropped against the kid because the DA wont touch that case. But being arrested doesn't mean you're prosecuted. That's all i'm trying to get across. You don't give the kid detention when you have a teacher yelling at him and a bunch of kids jumping on tables. you neutralize the situation. there has to be some LEO's on here that can back me up.

 

Yes, take the kid to the principals office, removing him from the situation. Its still not a reason to call the cops or have him arrested if the rules stated no guns on tshirts, as you suggested.

 

 

 Again, there is nothing in the school's rules that prohibits guns on a shirt. If there was, then the kid deserved to be arrested... but there wasn't.

 

 

BTW, I didnt miss the rest of your post. I agree with the rest of it, just not the part that I pointed out.

[Five Seasons]

and if the kid refuses to get up and go to the office? i'm not sure what high schools you guys went to, but even at Wayne we had our "trouble with authority" bunch. At no point can a teacher put their hands on a student (although those were the good ol days). And if the situation is growing out of control with the student body getting riled up, then what choice do you have? Think about the non-violent protests where people did "sit ins".

[WNYBuckHunter]

No matter how you put it, its nothing a kid should be arrested for. We had our share of people that had no respect for teachers, but you never once saw a cop in the building over something like this. Id like to see the video of the event so that both sides of the story could be seen, but it surely doesnt sound to me like anything a kid should be arrested for, if all he did was to refuse to take the shirt off or debate his right to wear it. The cop saying he almost incited a riot is over the top, and puts the exclamation that it was most likely an overreaction by the school, similar to the kids being booted from school for gun shaped pop tarts and the like.

[growalot]

It is NOT uncommon for both the police and Faculty to ...lets be kind....inflate what really happened in such a case to cover their collective back sides...By the way correct me if I'm wrong I may have missed it...but did the article not mention that....The students went up on tables and chairs to....WATCH THE POLICE TAKE HIM AWAY...

I'd have to conclude that seeing the authorities found that relevant....They would have mentioned if any such actions  had happened BEFORE they called the police...so I ask who nearly caused a "riot?"

[ELMER J. FUDD]

That kid is awesome. He went back to school wearing the same shirt LIKE A BOSS!

[josephmrtn]

Quote: Logan County students wore NRA t-shirts today in solidarity with Marcum, White said :Quote

 

He aint alone either!!!

[HuntOrBeHunted]

 Best part is first day back to school he had on the same shirt. Good for him sticking up for himself.

[Five Seasons]

No matter how you put it, its nothing a kid should be arrested for. We had our share of people that had no respect for teachers, but you never once saw a cop in the building over something like this. Id like to see the video of the event so that both sides of the story could be seen, but it surely doesnt sound to me like anything a kid should be arrested for, if all he did was to refuse to take the shirt off or debate his right to wear it. The cop saying he almost incited a riot is over the top, and puts the exclamation that it was most likely an overreaction by the school, similar to the kids being booted from school for gun shaped pop tarts and the like.

 

and i agree with that, and what happens when the dust settles is what is really important and exactly why our justice system allows someone to file suit if they feel they were wrongly treated. It is obvious to most that it was the teacher who instigated and escalated the situation. After the kid refused to take off the shirt, he should have been the adult and gone to the principal. The principal could have reminded the teacher that the shirt is not against the rules, or in the least decided to address it by calling the kid to his office instead of having a public argument.

 

but again that's all hindsight, and from someone whose mother is a teacher I fully support the police being called. If the police decided an arrest was warranted, than that's on them and not the school. Like I said there's a lawsuit and we shall see the results.

[WNYBuckHunter]

agreed.

 

Yep, pig just flew by....

[mike rossi]

The education system believes by obscuring legitimate gun use & ownership that gun crime will be reduced. What are they doing to obscure student's exposure to illegitimate gun use through video games, television, and movies? What benefit is pretending legitimate gun use / ownership does not exist while countless other sources are glorifying gun violence?

Edited April 25, 2013 by mike rossi