The mother of the West Virginia middle schooler who was charged and suspended for wearing a National Rifle Association T-shirt to school has filed a lawsuit against the Logan County Board of Education for violating the student's constitutional rights.
Jared Marcum, who was 14 at the time, was charged in April of 2013 for disrupting the educational process after he refused to turn his NRA T-shirt inside out. He was later charged with obstruction of justice because he refused to remain quiet after a police officer ordered him to stop talking, according to the Washington Times. Those charges were eventually dismissed by a judge, but Marcum did have to serve one day suspension for his actions.
Now, Marcum's mother, Tanya Lardieri, on behalf of her son, is suing several school board members, the school district superintendent and the principal at Logan Middle School, along with several teachers and staffers, according to the Logan Banner.
The lawsuit seeks $200,000 in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages, according to the Charleston Gazette. The shirt complied with the county and school dress code policies and didn't depict a violent or threatening image, according to the suit.
"The shirt was an un-alarming olive green tee shirt bearing the NRA logo, which is the letters 'NRA' in black, the words 'PROTECT YOUR RIGHT,' an image of a hunting rifle and the Official NRA Logo which has an Eagle and two crossed firearms," the complaint states, according to the Gazette.
On April 18, 2013, Marcum, a member of the National Rifle Association, was approached and forcefully stopped by school secretary Anita Gore during his lunch period. Gore placed her hand on Marcum's chest to prevent him from moving forward and asked him to remove his shirt or turn it inside out because it supposedly violated the school's dress code. Marcum refused, was taken to the principal's office and then suspended for one day, according to the Banner.
