A West Virginia mother is suing the Logan County Board of Education for violating her teenage son’s constitutional rights after he was charged and suspended for wearing an National Rifle Association T-shirt to school.
Tanya Lardieri filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of her son, Jared Marcum, who was charged in 2013 for disrupting the educational process and obstructing a police officer after he refused to turn his NRA T-shirt inside out, EAGNews.org reported.
A judge later dismissed the charges, but the school still forced Jared to serve a one-day suspension.
“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 officials NRA logo which has an eagle and two cross firearms,” according to the lawsuit, obtained by the Charleston Gazette.
The lawsuit names several school board members, the school district superintendent, several teachers and staffers at Logan Middle School, as well as the principal and the school itself.
The lawsuit claims that Jared was waiting in the lunch line in the school’s cafeteria when he was physically stopped by school secretary Anita Gore, who placed her hand on his chest and prevented him from moving forward, The Logan Banner reported.
The lawsuit says Ms. Gore told Jared that he had to turn his shirt inside out or face suspension. After the teen refused, teacher David Burroway hauled him off to the principal’s office by his arm, according to the lawsuit, The Logan Banner reported.
The teen was later charged with obstruction of justice because he refused to keep quiet after the officer ordered him to stop talking.
The family is seeking $200,000 in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages for alleged violations of Jared’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, EAGNews.org reported.
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