Marines T-shirt Ban: School Apologizes for Marine T-shirt Ban

Marines T-shirt ban: An Illinois school apologized this week for forcing a student to remove a T-shirt featuring the U.S. Marines.
Marines T-shirt Ban: School Apologizes for Marine T-shirt Ban
US Marine Sgt. Michelle Hill from the 1st battalion 7th Marines Regiment takes part in a patrol Afghanistan on June 6, 2012. (Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images)
2/27/2013
Updated:
10/1/2015

Marines T-shirt ban: An Illinois school apologized this week for forcing a student to remove a T-shirt featuring the U.S. Marines on it.

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The Illinois middle school that forced a 14-year-old boy to take off his U.S. Marines T-shirt issued an apology this week, saying it did not violate the dress code.

Daniel McIntyre, the boy’s father, told Fox News that he questioned the decision handed down by authorities at Genoa-Kingston Middle School.

McIntyre’s son, Michael, was forced to wear his T-shirt inside out after his teacher, Karen Deverel, told him to remove it from sight, citing the dress code of the school. The shirt featured interlocking rifles.

However, in a statement, the school acknowledged that the move was a bit excessive.

“Genoa-Kingston Middle School is well known in the community for their support of our military. The students and staff regularly write letters of support to the troops, and hold patriotic ceremonies for Veteran’s Day and Patriot’s Day,” the statement reads.

With that in mind, the school’s authorities “were disheartened to learn of this matter through the media,” adding that the Marines T-shirt does not violate the dress code of the school.

“We also take school safety very earnestly and it needs to be recognized that is a topic that we also take very seriously and support our students and staff in providing a safe environment to learn, teach and work in on a daily basis,” it continues.

Genoa-Kingston Superintendent Joe Burgess described the incident to Fox.

“Nobody took the next step of asking the principal or making them aware of it,” Burgess said. “The teacher is obviously allowed to question anything they feel might be a violation of dress code, but again, had an administrator been allowed to respond, this could have been taken care of yesterday.”

Some Facebook users were stunned by the school’s decision.

“‘Teaching’ children that inanimate objects are responsible for human action is yet another example of government school indoctrination,” reads one. “When did such crude materialism become the national religion? In the bad old days high schools used to have gun clubs on campus.”