When I was in 8th grade I wore a Jesus T-Shirt and often a button that said "The ten commandments are note multiple choice". This was back in the day (1979-80). Our bus driver was a cool hippie guy, teachers actually smoked in the building in the smoking lounge, and no one seemed to care about any of it.
I don't know how I survived it all :)
You are exactly right. A t-shirt like that would not bring the thought-police down on the kid - how sad to see the censors of "tolerance" run amok.