On April 18, West Virginia 8th grader Jared Marcum was suspended and now faces criminal charges for “obstruction and disturbing of education process,” for refusing to take off an NRA t-shirt he wore to school that day.
14-years old, the 8th grader said: “What they’re trying to do is take away my rights, my freedom of speech and my Second Amendment.”
The school that suspended Marcum–Logan Middle School in Logan, WV–allegedly didn’t call Marcum’s parents first nor seek out a meeting with them. Rather, Marcum says he was told “[his] mother was not to bring him to school the next day.”
Marcum’s dad claims the manner in which the school handled this has confused everything. He said the school did not make a statement to him or to news agencies. They just acted.
He added: “You can take the firearms out of the equation, what this is about is fundamental rights. …[My son now] has criminal charges, he has a bright future, this could do a lot of damage to that.”