| Students suspended arab 911 tshirt { March 2 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.nbc5.com/news/2013791/detail.htmlhttp://www.nbc5.com/news/2013791/detail.html
Suburban Student Suspended For Wearing Sept. 11 Shirt Mother Disagrees With School's Decision
POSTED: 3:24 p.m. CST March 2, 2003
CHICAGO RIDGE, Ill. -- An eighth grader has been suspended from school for wearing a T-shirt with a picture of two towers, an airplane and a man wearing traditional Arab headdress.
Officials at Finley Junior High School in Chicago Ridge, a suburb west of Chicago, told Ian Itani's mother in a letter that the decision by the 14-year-old to wear the T-shirt "could be taken as a promotion of terrorism."
Colleen Itani said her son, whose father is of Lebanese descent, wasn't promoting terrorism. She said her son was simply trying to send a message that not all Arabs are responsible for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Ian Itani was suspended Feb. 19. Chicago Ridge School District 127½ Superintendent Bernard Jumbeck declined to comment on the suspension, citing student privacy policies.
The boy got the idea to wear the hand-drawn T-shirt after listening to jeers from his classmates after the terrorist attacks, his mother said. He used a black marker to draw two skyscrapers and an airplane on the front of the T-shirt, and on the back he drew the bearded face of a man wearing a headdress.
"Everywhere I go people call us camels because of what happened," Ian Itani said. "So I put (the drawing) on my shirt to tell them who did it and to say that me and my Arab friends didn't do it."
Colleen Itani said she saw her son drawing the images and warned him against wearing the shirt. When he walked into the school gym, the teacher told him the shirt was unacceptable and sent him to the principal, who suspended him.
The principal also told him he would not be allowed to participate in onstage graduation ceremonies scheduled for June 6, his mother said.
The Itanis say they are considering suing the school for violating the boy's right to free speech and for misinterpreting the T-shirt's intended message. Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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