Last year, Stephen was one of five team members on The Clay Busters, California State Champions from the Sacramento Trap Club who went on to win at the national competition in the Junior Experienced Division. Last August, team members each brought home a medal and a $1,000 scholarship, and Stephen proudly wore his Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) member's shirt to school — until March 11th this year, and drafting class in first period.
The teacher told Stephen his SCTP team shirt was "inappropriate," and officials at El Camino High School backed him up. Stephen's mom had to bring another shirt for him to wear because the harmless depiction of a firearm used in competition violated the school's zero-tolerance policy on depiction of weapons, school officials said.
Now, attorney Chuck Michel of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, official state association of the NRA, has contacted the San Juan Unified School District to protest the way Stephen was treated and to assist the school in revising its policy. Michel points out that another student regularly wears a T-shirt depicting cocaine mobster Tony Montana wielding a gun in the film "Scarface" to El Camino High and that a middle school in the district uses as its mascot a fiercely posed warrior brandishing a spear. We'll keep you posted on the inclination of school officials to reconsider their political correctness. SCTP's national director at NSSF, Scott Moore, points out that the shirts are routinely worn by students at middle and high schools in the 40 states with SCTP competitors. "In Tennessee," Moore points out, "students can get a letter in shotgun because it's a varsity sport."
SCTP Logo on Stephen's T-shirt
El Camino High School's mascot
Source: National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF)
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