A middle schooler was given a dress code violation and was told by administrators to turn his patriotic shirt inside out because school officials claimed it could have been gang related.
When Dustin Cole, a student at Yuba Gardens Intermediate school, came home from school with the shirt inside out his mother, Lori Carpenter was confused.
“I asked him why,” Carpenter told Fox 40. “He said he was ‘dress coded’ at school because the stars were gang related.”
Carpenter says that Dustin is an honor student who has never been in trouble and is not associated with any gangs. She told the television station that she had purchased the t-shirt at Kohl’s.
“Our local gang task force, they identify colors, they identify designs, they identify all of the things that we should be aware of,” Ramior Carreon, Assistant Superintendent at Marysville Joint Unified School District told Fox 40. “That design has been associated with gangs in the past, and we cannot just turn a blind eye to that.”
The school believed that the red star on the top right of the shirt could have been associated with the Norteno gang.
Dustin’s mother says that the school just overreacted a bit.
“I mean, they are trying to keep everybody safe. I understand, but it feels like it is a little too far. Especially when it is a patriotic shirt,” Carpenter said.
