Jared Marcus, West Virginia student, returns to school after being suspended, arrested for not taking off NRA shirt

A West Virginia student was charged with causing a disruption at a middle school when he refused to remove a T-shirt that displayed the National Rifle Association’s logo and hunting rifle.

Jared Marcum, 14, said the shirt did not violate Logan Middle School’s dress code policy.

“I was surprised. It shocked me that the school didn’t know their own dress code and their own policy,‘ Marcum said in a telephone interview. ‘I figured they would have known not to call me out on that shirt because there was nothing wrong with it.”

The youth was reportedly waiting in the school cafeteria line Thursday when a teacher ordered the eighth-grader to remove the T-shirt or to turn it inside out.

Marcum said he was sent to the office where he again refused the order.

‘When the police came, I was still talking and telling them that this was wrong, that they cannot do this, it’s not against any school policy. The officer, he told me to sit down and be quiet. I said, “No, I’m exercising my right to free speech.” I said it calmly,’ he said.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and obstructing an officer, he said.

“The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his voice,” he said.

Logan County Schools’ dress code, which is posted on the school system’s website, prohibits clothing and accessories that display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually suggestive phrases. 

Clothing displaying advertisements for any alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to violate any school policy.

“I just don’t understand why this teacher reacted the way he did,” said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve surveillance video of the cafeteria.

The eighth grader return to class Monday.

“There’s a lot of people wearing this same exact shirt, showing great, great support and I really appreciate it,” Jared said just before walking into school.

“He was arrested, he was put into handcuffs, he was removed from the school and brought to the Logan City Police Department,” White said. “Charges aren’t officially filed or brought until the prosecuting attorney’s signs off on them and they don’t do that willy nilly.  They do that after a thorough investigation.”

That investigation is now under way, led by juvenile prosecuting attorney Sabrina Deskins.
Photo screenshot: