Story Archive

Shirt Wars

The Lamar, Texas, school system’s junior-high dress code bans “symbols oriented toward violence.” Apparently that includes depictions of soldiers with weapons — even fictional soldiers, of a fictional empire, with fictional weapons. That’s right: Colson Southern’s T-shirt was from Star Wars, and showed a Stormtrooper. Authorities ordered the seventh-grader to cover it with his coat. “There’s not a violent bone in his body,” said Joe Southern, who thinks his son’s First Amendment rights were violated. “He’s just an excited kid for the movie.” (AC/KTRK Houston) ...But he attends public school in a galaxy far, far away from the Constitution.