- MARSHFIELD, Mass. (Reuters)
- A Massachusetts student who wore an anti-war T-shirt to school was asked
by his principal to cover it up while lawyers checked whether it was allowed
under school rules, the pupil said on Tuesday.
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- Chris Little, 15, scrawled the words "Who would
Jesus bomb?" in green ink on a white T-shirt and sported it at Marshfield
High School on Monday.
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- Midway through the day, Little was hauled into the office
of Principal Peter Deftos. The principal asked the student to cover up
the T-shirt with a sweatshirt while he checked with school lawyers to see
if it was permissible.
-
- Deftos informed Little on Tuesday morning that he could
wear the T-shirt -- defusing a potential free-speech controversy.
-
- "He wanted to check that it was OK for me to wear
something like that -- that it wasn't infringing on anyone's rights,"
Little told Reuters.
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- "He's letting me wear it now," he said. "It
was never a question of him disciplining me -- he was just doing his job."
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- Neither Deftos nor Marshfield Public Schools Superintendent
Thomas Kelley returned phone calls seeking comment.
-
- The incident at Marshfield High School came a week after
a lawyer was arrested at a public mall near Albany, New York after he refused
to take off a "Give Peace a Chance" T-shirt he had just purchased
at the mall. Charges against the man were eventually dropped.
-
- U.S. and British preparations for a possible war in Iraq
have generated widespread international opposition, with millions of people
around the world taking part in anti-war demonstrations over the past month.
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