'Star Wars' T-shirt lands 7th grader in hot water at Texas school

A Stormtrooper of the "Star Wars" franchise holds a rebel blaster.

A Texas 7th grader said he was forced to cover up his T-shirt depicting a wartime soldier holding a gun.

Specifically, that would be a Stormtrooper holding a “rebel blaster” on a "Star Wars" T-shirt.

“It’s political correctness run amok,” the student’s father, Joe Southern, told KTRK. “You’re talking about a "Star Wars" T-shirt, a week before the biggest movie of the year comes out. It has nothing to do with guns or making a stand. It’s just a "Star Wars" shirt.”

Southern said his son, Colton, wore the Stormtrooper shirt to class Thursday at George Junior High School in Rosenberg, just as he had done several times before without incident.

This time was different.

“It’s political correctness run amok."

— Joe Southern

School officials reportedly asked Colton to zip up his jacket and cover the image because the shirt was banned due to its representation of a weapon.

For clarification, the “rebel blaster” is not an actual weapon. It only exists in the Star Wars universe.

The school handbook, however, includes “symbols oriented toward violence” as a potential dress code violation, a Lamar Consolidated Independent School District spokesperson told KTRK.

“He’s a Boy Scout, active in church, volunteers at Brazos Bend State Park,” Joe Southern said. “There’s not a violent bone in his body. He’s just an excited kid for the movie.”