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“Sophomore Haley Bullwinkle said when she wore her NRA shirt to Canyon High School last month, she landed in the principal’s office for violating the school’s dress code that forbids offensive, violent or divisive clothing. ‘They were treating me like I was a criminal,’ she said. ‘I was not allowed to wear that at school because it promoted gun violence.’” Today’s tale of government school anti-gun thuggery comes from Anaheim Hills, California via cbslocal.com . . .

Canyon High’s (“preparing our students for the global economy”) teachable moment: the NRA (the nation’s premier promoter of Second Amendment right and firearms safety training and education) is synonymous with gun violence. Shiny new Canyon High principal and dedicated zero tolerance bureaucratic functionary Kimberly Fricker bravely deflected blame for the anti-gun fatwa onto “school police” because of the image of a rifle (in a hunter’s hands) on the shirt.

She hasn’t returned our call for comment yet, but we’ll keep you informed.

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94 COMMENTS

    • If she wore a Che Guevara shirt she’d probably have had no issues, or perhaps even a compliment despite the fact Che was a violent monster.

        • I propose an experiment. Have 1 child where a shirt with the text of each amendment from the BoR on it to school over a two week period. Wait until the tenth day to have said child where the 2d amendment shirt and see what happens. Alternatively have 10 children wear the same assorted shirt on the same day. See which child/or when a child is hassled by the faculty.

  3. Do these folks not watch the news? Do Principals not have a professional newsletter with protips such as “banning students from wearing an NRA shirt is going to get you bad press on the news?”

    • They all subscribe to The Imbecile Newsletter. The same one politicians and senior government officials subscribe to.

    • Free speech has been dead. There are/were Blasphemy laws (rare but there) & anti “swearing” laws.The FCC which was put in place by congress is regulating what is offensive to them and dishes out heavy fines to the speakers. There has been government boards decrying what is pornography (and banned) and what is art (legal) so if Uncle Sam doesn’t like a book they can either have it not published or prevent import. Lets not of course forget hate speech laws, where if you come across even a little too angry you can be in some trouble. We even have silly contempt of court rules where if you don’t address a judge by an arbitrary title or say something that offends them you can find yourself in jail and your money stolen. Try calling the person who rear ended you a S.o.B. or something in court and don’t see if you get a warning, then an outright fine.

      People seem to ignore that the first amendment, and please correct me if I’m incorrect, says nothing about the right of the people to not be offended. Zip, nada, nothing. Says nothing about if you hate something to shut up your mouth, or to follow silly taboos against some words because ass is some how worse than buttocks. The goal post of what is offensive is easily moved at the whim of those who wish to silence others.

      • The First Amendment is a virtual GUARANTEE that someone, somewhere is going to be offended by something someone else says. As a veteran, my motto was “I may not agree with what you’re saying, but I will defend to the death your RIGHT to say it.”

  5. I’m sure they would be fine with any other organizations shirt like Mom’s Demand Action with a picture of a gun with a big red X through it. Or, Planned Parenthood. In fact they probably hand out Planned Parenthood shirts to each student while promoting their solution for teen pregnancy. Sadly, children can’t go to a government sponsored indoctrination center, err, I mean school without getting their fill of some teacher or administrators political views. This is among many reasons why my children will never go to a public school. God help us. What is this country going to look like in another 20-50 years?

    • Simple; it won’t be around in fifty years, at least not as a sovereign nation of free men.

      • Sadly, if things continue in this direction, I’m afraid you are right. Even now being “free” has many restrictions and those restrictions continue to build with every law passed by our government.

    • Just FYI, my wife is also in the CA public school system, and she’s even more right wing than I am. There are still teachers that know, understand, and respect freedom. The administrators, with few exceptions, lean extremely far left. This is a good example.

      • A good step in the right direction to untangle the mess our schools are in is to eliminate the Federal Department of Education. It’s only been around since about 1980. Return control of the schools to the local communities.

        For our countries future and freedoms sake this is as important as eliminating the ATF.

  7. “The girl’s father, who has retained an attorney, now wants to know how the school defines violence. He said the drill team is allowed to twirl fake rifles and the mascot is a Comanche.”

    Are any of us shocked an asinine school administrator lacked the brainpower necessary (to live life in general, much less run a school)?

    • A fun social experiment…

      The student could acquire an image of the drill team twirling their fake rifles. Make a T-shirt with a magnified image of just the rifle. Wear T-shirt to school. Document the ensuing hilarity.

      Is it a picture of a gun in violation of the dress code? Or is she showing school spirit by promoting the school’s drill team (with the school-supplied props) in action?

  8. Fast food shirts promote obesity. Just trying to keep it fair and rational. Oh wait, Rationality is rare in Cali.

  9. Anyone remember the good ol days when schools didn’t have political agendas? When principals weren’t bucking for political appointments to the school board or whatever?? Can we please go back to that?

    • How far back do we have to go? Before they added ‘Under God’ to the Pledge of Allegiance in the Eisenhower Administration? That was a political agenda against the Communists. I agree with you 100% but my question is ‘When were the good ol’ times?”

    • Schools have always had a political agenda. The difference is that the “old” agenda was American.

  10. What was the principal’s name again?
    Was it Natasha Fatale?
    Because thought I read somewhere that the school board president was Boris Badenov.

  11. I suppose an “Obama” T-shirt would promote violence as well – after all, he executes people with drone strikes.

    • You have to wonder, because from where I’m sitting, those are just as divisive. The difference is I’m not a liberal, so I wouldn’t make the administration make them take it off.

      When a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one. When a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he tries to get the government to take them away from everyone.

      (Of course, as I typed that, I realized that if you reversed the parties and changed guns to abortion, the roles reverse. Just proof again that I’m more libertarian (small L) than I am Republican.)

      • The thing with abortion is a whole lot different. The “freedom” of the woman to “chose” literally destroys every single decision that baby could ever make for its whole life. Ever see a viable baby squirm in pain as it gets ripped to pieces in the womb? Watch an ultrasound of that happening and then tell me how much you support abortion. I have no problem with abortion as long as the baby is free to chose it as well.

        The last time I checked, women also have the freedom to close their legs, take a pill, have the man wear a condom, or not have sex.

        I’m pretty f$&@ing tired of being called anti freedom because I chose not to support abortion.

        • I lean this way too, especially for late term abortion in which the fetus stands any kind of chance of survival outside the womb. A fertilized egg isn’t a person as far as I’m concerned. As to that magic cutoff between egg and potentially viable fetus…where to draw the line…that’s a tough one. I don’t pretend to have that one figured out.

          Regardless, I agree 100% with your main point. Matt, I don’t think that abortion and gun rights are interchangeable in that way. Right to defend yourself and loved ones against violence or oppression? No gray area there for me. Abortion, very complicated.

        • A81, if it was up to me, abortion would be a requirement, not a choice. “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Buck v. Bell.

      • I agree. I wouldn’t want the principal to go after them over the dress code either. The problem is who gets to decide what is divisive and what isn’t. Che T-shirts are about as close to Nazi icons as far as I am concerned but those shirts have been popular for a while.

  13. How many teenagers are injured for life from high school football, a sport which promotes extreme violence. Yet football jerseys are worn as a symbol of pride and violence-based school solidarity, and big rallies are held where these violent, extreme acts are applauded!

    Time to ban contact sports jerseys, too. School and pro-replicas.

  15. As Dan pointed out, someone needs to inform this screaming ninny that the NRA does more to promote gun safety than probably the next three organizations on the list combined.

  16. We need to calm down a little bit as a community…

    Most people couldn’t wear an NRA or politically based shirt at work… So, why is a school any different?

    I’m a member of the NRA and supporter of gun rights. Though, I view guns like your private parts, we all know you have them, but that doesn’t mean anyone wants see them.

    Just keep it to yourself when it business time, having freedom doesn’t mean you have to be obnoxious with it.

    • I wear my Gadsden & Cullpepper shirts everyday to work – and I work at a very liberal musical instrument store. My boss though, understands my rights of expression because it’s the same ones that we promote when people create music.

      • Well, no offense, but that’s because you work a music store… A “who farted?” could be considered acceptable attire…

        I work as an engineer for 100 billion dollar a year company. In my office we have “lunch at the range” Friday, I go on hunting trips with coworkers, and everyone is very pro gun, but the reality is we cannot walk around in NRA or pro gun attire- it’s not professional.

        I’m a big truck driving, hunting and fishing, gun toting Texan who lives on 5 acres in the county, guns are just a way of life for me. But, when it’s business time (including school), keep it business.

        • It isn’t just a place of work. It is a public school. Like many of us have mentioned, how does this same admin react to Che, NAACP, MAIG, NO More Names shirts etc.

    • You make a good point, but also consider that people are not forced by law to work at a place that doesn’t allow them to express themselves. Of course, one might argue that there are alternatives to public school, but the laws, taxes, and regulations tend to push kids that way pretty damn hard.

      • Who goes to work or school to express themselves?

        I go to work to make money and put food on the table. And, my kids go to l school to get an education in order find and good job and make money.

        Express yourself on your own time, not when it’s time to work or learn.

        That’s why my kids go to private school, no public school political nonsense, just a good education.

    • Before I wear my put on my uniform, I’ll take my TTAG, Assaulted Crew, Rand Paul, or Hornady shirt into work. My office is public property, as is a school. I assure you that the 1st Amendment applies to public property.
      The 2nd Amendment is supposed to apply as well, mind you, but we as a society are allowing ourselves to be disarmed.

      • As I read this, my .45 is on the window sill next to my desk. My TTAG hat is on the shelf above my desk, and I’m reading and commenting on TTAG.
        Life is good.

  17. So are they going to contact the ACLU to see about filing a suite for violating her First Amendment Rights?

    Also, somebody should send her a t-shirt with the bill of rights on it.

  18. As I am part Native American, I find their school mascot racist, insensitive, and demeaning. I demand the school ban any future use of the mascot, the image or school team name, and moreover, I demand that they provide me with a pretty pink pony and a field of flowers.

      • Of course, the logical follow on to a rainbow reference is the obligatory Skittles joke. Or is that not PC now?

    • You can’t be “part” Native American. You are either born on one of the American continents, which makes you a Native American or you were born someplace else.

      • I like the term “second wave American” as a way to refer to the descendents of the people who came over the land bridge about 12K years ago and pushed out the aborigines, with the people of European descent as “third wave Americans.”

      • Exactly! The tribes were constantly taking land from each other. One of the oldest wars was the Crow and Blackfoot.

  19. Make the kids scared of guns early enough and they’ll recoil in fear at the mere sight of one. That’s the goal. Teach early on that guns–all guns– are BAD and EVIL and should be GONE.

  20. Of course if Haley had worn a t-shirt with the image of Che Guevara , she’d have been considered a free thinking humanitarian “global citizen” and given maximum exposure on MSNBC. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! As a Califonian, firearms enthusiast and NRA member its clear to me that her 1st Amendment rights have been trampled on by a clearly left wing politically correct school administration . They all need to be shown the door! Unbelievable and this in conservative Orange County!

  21. The most upsetting part of this to me is the assertion that we, the NRA/gun owners/the armed intelligentsia, promote and cause violence. They’ve been insinuating it forever, but this is a whole new level of bluntness.

  22. Didn’t a kid successfully sue a school district in another State over something like this?

  23. Where was Rocket J. Squirrel in her moment of need?

    On a more serious note, I hope that they are able to sue the principal and the school district and that she gets a nice settlement that will pay all of her college costs with some left over, say, for a lifetime membership to the NRA. Wouldn’t that be sweetly ironic?

  26. Canyon High School (which prohibited an NRA shirt because it “promoted gun violence”) has, as their logo and mascot – wait for it – a COMANCHE WARRIOR! Yes, the scourge of the Texas/Mexico border area, one of the fiercest western fighting tribes, hated and feared by all of their neighbors, fond of torturing and killing babies, eager to get their hands on firearms and use them in their battles – these are the exemplars of the “fighting spirit” of the Canyon HS athletic teams! GO Comanches! Kill the opponents!

    Wasn’t it Isaac Azimov who said “irony is the axis of the universe”?

  28. Someone needs to give the kid a T-shirt with NRA on one side, and MA(I)G on the other. Let the administrator’s head explode for a day.

  29. When my son was in high school, He wore a NSSF SCTP shirt, which had a picture of a person shooting a shotgun in its logo. He was told that wearing it violated the districts no weapon depiction policy. I got into it with the vice principal, and told her that under the policy you could wear a shirt with the CA state seal on it as it has a spear on it. Like wise several other school logos had swords and spears on them. The NSSF the NRA attorneys got involved and the dist changed its dress code. It took about a year. I now wish that we would have taken it to court and put the hurt on the school dist. He could of used the money for college. My advice is for these folks to sue the dist. Its a 1st amd issue. The NRA will get involved…or contact Chuck Michle gun rights attorney of the CRPA.

    • That was the first thing I noticed, Chip. I’m cynical enough to believe this is a fishing expedition by the parents.

      That said, I still disagree with the school’s policy and actions. I just wish the shirt was a little more her size. Part of winning a battle is not leaving openings for the enemy, and if she’s wearing her dad’s shirt, that’s a pretty big opening.

  31. Anaheim Hills, CA – My home town. Once a conservative pocket of Southern California.

    Gosh, not sure why I moved./

  32. California, how much of this are you going to stand for? I vacillate between sympathy for you and wondering if you are actually in favor of subjecting yourselves and your children to such moronic policies. The rest of the country can not intervene in your state politics, and rightly so. The ball is in your court, citizens. NOTHING will improve until you DO SOMETHING. If I am missing your local efforts please forgive my criticism, but Colorado, though presently still burdened with the instigating legislation, did something. What you are allowing to occur will eventually infect other states so, PLEASE, make your voices be heard. Best of luck.

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