Suspension Lifted for Hinsdale Teen Who Wore Gun Club T-Shirt to School

Hinsdale High School Dist. 86 officials lifted the suspension of a student who was suspended from school for wearing a T-shirt imprinted with the outline of an AK-47, Trib Local reported.

Senior Chris Borg was suspended from school on May 6, when hall monitors noticed him entering the school wearing the TeamAK shirt with the website kentuckyarmoryclub printed across it, and sent him packing to the dean.

Rather than turn the shirt inside out or change it, 18-year-old Borg decided to exercise his First Amendment rights by going home for the day. School officials said the shirt violated the school’s dress code, who said the shirt was “disruptive.”

Borg said he’s worn the shirt to school at least ten times without any objection. He protested the suspension before the Dist. 86 school board on Monday.

The dress code prohibits any clothing that is "vulgar, inappropriate, unsafe or disruptive to the educational process (e.g., advertising/display of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, sexual innuendo)."

No specific reference to firearms is listed in the dress code, however.

On Wednesday, Supt. Dr. Bruce Law announced that the district had “changed its mind about the rectitude of the suspension,” according to Trib Local.

Law said that in the future district officials would try to distinguish gun images that do not promote violence or illegal activity, the paper said. Clothing depicting guns representing the Armed Forces would also be deemed appropriate.

Borg, who is an Eagle Scout, said he was “ecstatic” with the district’s decision to expunge the suspension from his record.

"I'm happy. I wasn't trying to push buttons or be provocative,” he told the paper. “I was just trying to assert my First Amendment rights."

Via Trib Local