School bans National Guard T-shirts over gun image

A National Guard recruiter was instructed to stop handing out promotional t-shirts at a New York high school after teachers complained at the shirts featured a soldier holding a weapon.

“A pointed gun is just not appropriate for a high school,” said Alan McCartney, the interim superintendent of the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk School District.

Last Friday, a recruiter for the New York Army National Guard was on campus handing out swag – including a shirt with the logo of a silhouetted soldier aiming a rifle. The silhouette was framed by an American flag and the words “National Guard.”

“A couple of teachers realized it showed a silhouette of a rifleman on it,” McCartney told me in a telephone interview. “I realize some students look at the t-shirt and all they see is the National Guard. And that is a good thing. Others look at the shirt and all they see is the rifle.”

The recruiter had already given away as many as 20 shirts when the principal showed up and asked him to stop. The recruiter complied with the principal’s request and left the campus.

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