This is America now: Eighth grader facing a year in prison for wearing gun rights T-shirt to school

Thursday, June 20, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: T-shirt, gun rights, First Amendment

(NaturalNews) It's bad enough the micromanagers of the Nanny State want to strip you of your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, now they want to take away your right to even talk about it.

In essence, that is the issue at the heart of a case involving an eighth-grade student from West Virginia who was suspended from school - then arrested - for refusing to take off a t-shirt supportive of the National Rifle Association.

"What they're trying to do is take away my rights, my freedom of speech and my Second Amendment," said 14-year-old Jared Marcum, when he was initially suspended from Logan Middle School in Logan, W. Va., in April.

'This is about fundamental rights'

Following his suspension he was arrested for "obstruction and disturbing of education process," whatever that means. Reports said officers even considered - now get this - charging him with making terrorist threats. Now young Marcum, who has no prior criminal record and is a model student, faces a year in jail and a $500 fine - just for wearing a pro-NRA tee-shirt that included a picture of a semi-automatic, military-style look-alike rifle.

The way the school handled it - from the demand young Marcum change his shirt to his suspension - was the epitome of cowardice. According to Breitbart News:

The school ... 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."

No one at Logan Middle School or the local prosecuting attorney's office seems to care, however. All they saw was an "evil gun" - on a shirt - and the Nanny State moved in to silence the "offending" student.

I'm not sure what stinks most about this - the case itself, which appears to be a blatant violation of this boy's constitutionally protected rights - or the fact that an idiot judge is allowing the prosecution to move forward.

Undaunted, young Marcum's father, Allen Lardieri, remains unapologetic.

"Me, I'm more of a fighter and so is Jared and eventually we're going to get through this," he told local CBS affiliate WTRF. "I don't think it should have ever gotten this far."

Young Marcum's attorney, Ben White, is equally apoplectic and confused.

"In my view of the facts, Jared didn't do anything wrong," he told the affiliate. "I think [the arresting officer] could have done something differently."

Yeah - like behave in a rational manner.

'Every aspect of this is just totally wrong'

Per WTRF:

We obtained official court documents from both sides of this case. On one hand, the arresting officer from the Logan City Police Department, James Adkins, claims that when Jared refused to stop talking, that hindered his ability to do his job, hence, the obstruction charge. On the other side, Ben White points out that nowhere in the arresting officer's petition, does it mention Jared ever making any threats or acting in a violent manner.

"Every aspect of this is just totally wrong. He has no background of anything criminal, up until now, and it just seems like nobody wants to admit they're wrong," Lardieri said.

White says he'll continue working to have these ridiculous charges dropped but if he's unsuccessful, young Marcum will be back in court July 11th.

To say this is a miscarriage of justice is pathetically inadequate. A spate of school shootings aside, the Constitution says nothing about local authorities being permitted to suspend its provisions because sometimes, bad things happen to good people.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.breitbart.com

http://www.wtrf.com

http://dailycaller.com