DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - School officials ordered a 16-year-old student to
either take off a T-shirt emblazoned with the words ``International
Terrorist'' and a picture of President Bush or go home, saying they worried
it would inflame passions at the school where a majority of students are
Arab-American.
The student, Bretton Barber, chose to go home. He said he wore the shirt
Monday to express his anti-war position and for a class assignment in which
he wrote a compare-contrast essay on Bush and Iraq President Saddam Hussein.
Schools spokesman Dave Mustonen said students have the right to freedom of
expression, but educators are sensitive to tensions caused by the conflict
with Iraq.
``It was felt that emotions are running very high,'' Mustonen said.
Dearborn is the center of an Arab-American community of about 300,000 in
southeastern Michigan. About 55 percent of the district's 17,600 students
are Arab-American.
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On the Net:
Dearborn Public Schools,
http://www.dearbornschools.org/
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee,
