Criminal charge dropped against NRA T-shirt wearing teen

WV Metro News ^ | 28 JUN 2013 | Travis Brinks

[BCW]

LOGAN, W.Va. — A criminal charge against a Logan Middle School student who refused to remove a National Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school has been dismissed.

Logan County Circuit Judge Eric O’Briant signed an order Thursday dismissing an obstruction charge against Jared Marcum stemming from an April 18 incident.

Marcum was arrested after police were called to Logan Middle School when he refused to remove his T-shirt after a teacher told him to. A police officer said he told Marcum to stop talking, but he refused. That’s when Marcum was arrested for obstruction.

[BCW]

I just found out because I'm a member of Gun Broker -- apparently a defense fund was set up and a lawyer took his case pro bono - but everything was dropped. The teacher was his band teacher that thought the shirt was offensive - which lead to this whole situation....a band teacher in Logan WV where students are pro gun...I'm pretty sure he knows this...and will probably be looking to leave Logan after this...the entire state of WV is Pro Gun (except for the welfare idiots, which are pro Mountain Dew)...I'm posting this even though the article is a week old - I just found out...

[KingLudd]

I think that most “paychecks” in WV are welfare checks. A huge number of people on welfare in WV.

[Venturer]

The W.Va. Judge is a bit smarter than the cop who arrested this kid.

It all came out in the wash.

[Flintlock]

Now, SUE THE BASTARDS.

College i$ expen$ive.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

If it were my kid, a nasty faced lawyer would get some work.

[HiTech RedNeck]

This could, however, be an opportunity to “sue” in the public eye for sane 1st and 2nd amendment recognition. Turning something into a personal vendetta can drain attention and energy from more worthy goals and also make advocacy for those goals sound like they are driven by pecuniary purposes. The lad basically went there to speak up for the righteous use of weapons (i.e. self defense and sport). Let’s see his goal furthered.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And it would be especially sweet if they could even get that cop to agree with it, and to publicly lament the stupid rules that have been wished on him. The cop may have been put in a no win situation.

[nathanbedford]

Obama has put many people who earn every penny of their paychecks in one of the most dangerous and dirty industries onto welfare and many more will join them thanks to his war on coal.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Coal mined and used responsibly (which don’t mean choking the whole thing down like Obama has) is a wonderful, wonderful fuel. The planet didn’t die way back when, at the time when all that carbon, now in the coal, was in the air (assuming fossil fuel). It had more oxygen too, because that was one thing that God put green plants on this globe for.

[from occupied ga]

The cop may have been put in a no win situation.

Not the way I understand it. The cop appeared to be on a power trip charging the kid with obstruction for exercising his first amendment rights. The police are NOT on the side of freedom.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well personally I’d want to nose into that department’s, and the associated prosecutor’s, policies and stated expectations. There could be a little tyranny going there and the cop a pawn under pressure... or it might be as you suggest, or a combination thereof. I just would not want to go off half cocked.

[Sooth2222]

In West Virginia, both the unemployment rate and # of welfare recipients seem to be well below the average US state.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/25/us/20090126-welfare-table.html?_r=0

http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I have always believed schools have the right to establish policy on what can or cannot be worn in their classrooms.
This was challenged in a successful lawsuit back in the late 1960s in an Iowa case where a kid wore a black arm band pinned to his shirt sleeve.

I'll see if I can find the case...

[Right Wing Assault]

They farted around with this since April 18!

[ASA Vet]

You just found out?

[HiTech RedNeck]

There are so many if’s, and’s and but’s involved in this kind of thing. At any rate it could have been handled much more calmly. We seem to be a freak country today (on the verge of freaking out everywhere).

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Tinker vs. the Des Moines Independent School District. 1965. Kids were protesting the war in VN.
Case went to the US Supreme Court. Court ruled it was a 1st Amendment issue and the school had to demonstrate why it would prohibit certain “speech,” in this case, wearing a black armband...

[BCW]

yeap...

[infowarrior]

Now, SUE THE BASTARDS.

College i$ expen$ive.

Unfortunately, this was actually a "deal", rather than sanity on the part of TPTB. Part of the deal was no litigation thereafter, in return for the dismissal of the charges with prejudice...

the infowarrior

[HiTech RedNeck]

But was future wearing of such shirts agreed to be cricket? If so, it sounds like it’s worth it. You don’t usually battle meaningfully without incurring some damage in the process.