Wednesday, 3.25.98 -- Mike Cameron, a high school senior in Evans,
Ga., was suspened for wearing a Pepsi shirt on the school's Coke Day. The
event was planned for the possibility of winning a contest ran by the Coca-Cola
Bottling Company. Their first prize would be $500, with a small
chance of winning the national $10,000 award. Cameron wore a shirt over
his Pepsi shirt all day, until it came to picture time, when he revealed that
his undershirt was pro-Pepsi. The teachers found it disruptive, disrespectful, and damaging
to the picture. Cameron insists he wore the shirt as a joke. It is in
his personality to be an un-conformer.
The Coke executives did not even notice his shirt. A spokeswoman for Coke said that the execs were not offended. She also said that she did not care because it was a joke and things like it happen all the time.
The school insists anyone who disrupts a school photo gets suspension, but Cameron's
own mother and some others find the suspension very excessive. Personally, I wish the
ACLU would sue the living hell out of the school for infringing upon Cameron's first
amendment rights. Making obscene gestures in a school picture would be logical grounds
for suspension, but Cameron was just exercising his legal freedom of speech. He has the
legal right to wear any shirt he wishes.
See his picture/more information: CNN.com Article