On May 6, Hindsdale High School senior Chris Borg was suspended after choosing to go home instead of turning his shirt with an image of an AK-47 inside out.
Borg said “the dean of students… offered him the chance to turn the shirt inside out,” but he “felt it was an infringement of [his] First Amendment right to freedom of expression.”
Borg is 18-years old and an Eagle Scout.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Borg wore a shirt to school “with the outline of a AK-47 depicted on the back, [and] a URL for the website of a Kentucky armory club that supports gun rights.” The shirt also had the words “Team AK” on it.
The school handbook says students can face “disciplinary action” for wearing clothing that “is deemed vulgar, inappropriate, unsafe or disruptive to the educational process (e.g., advertising/display of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, sexual innuendo).”
School superintendent Bruce Law said Borg’s AK-47 shirt was “unsafe and disruptive.”
Law added: “Every school I’ve ever worked at has restrictions on what a student can wear when it’s offensive or could be predicted to be offensive, when it promotes drugs, alcohol or violence.”
Borg is seeking to have the suspension “removed from his record.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@bretibart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.