An Orange County, Calif. high school apologized to a sophomore student who was forced to remove her National Rifle Association t-shirt or face suspension on Thursday.
16-year-old Haley Bullwinkle obeyed the campus officials' demand and removed the shirt, trading it out for a school tee given to her by Canyon High staff. But when she returned home, she expressed confusion to her father, who received the shirt when he joined the NRA.
"I felt like they were violating my rights, my freedom of speech," Bullwinkle said. "I want to be able to wear what I want to wear within reason."
Following the incident, officials from the Anaheim high school apologized to Bullwinkle, noting that campus staff would be instructed to ensure "an incident like this does not occur again."
The t-shirt in question was white and bore an image of the American flag with a hunter and a rifle, along with the message, "National Rifle Association of America, Protecting America's Traditions Since 1871."
Some members of staff maintained that they'd asked Bullwinkle to remove the shirt because the picture of the rifle violated the Canyon High dress code, which bars students from wearing clothing that suggests violence, criminal activity, or anything that debases cultural values, the Los Angeles Times reported.
When Bullwinkle's parents wrote to Principal Kimberly Fricker, saying that the school encroached upon the sophomore's constitutional rights, Fricker responded by releasing a memo detailing the school's policy on controversial clothing.
"In general, anything that is divisive or offensive to a staff member," the policy read. "The administration reserves the right to restrict any clothing or accessories that, in our judgment, detracts from the educational environment of Canyon High School."
But after Fricker took a closer look at photos of the shirt with officials from the Orange Unified School District, she changed courses, concluding that the shirt did not advocate violence.
"The student will be permitted to wear the shirt," Superintendent Michael Christensen announced in a statement.
Attorney Chuck Michel, who is currently working with the Bullwinkle family at the behest of the NRA, stated that the school's higher-ups blew the whole situation out of proportion.
"If they're going to try to characterize this shirt as depicting violence, then this policy is overboard," he told the LA Times. "School officials can't write themselves a policy that gives them unfettered discretion."
