Student’s Duck Dynasty t-shirt deemed ‘threatening’
Hunter Spain, a student at Dinwiddie High School in Virginia, was told to remove the t-shirt he was wearing, which featured Si Robertson from the popular reality show, Duck Dynasty, because the message was thought to be ‘threatening.’ The t-shirt included one of Si’s signature quips, “I will hurt you physically and metaphysically.” As reported by WWBT NBC 12 News, Hunter’s mom Edna-Jo Spain did not agree with the school saying, "For this to be considered as a threat to the school. I just, I couldn't understand it. I couldn’t understand it…Anybody that ever watches Duck Dynasty knows that Si Robertson is famous for his little funny slogans and his little jargons." Hunter was told by his teachers to either go home or wear the offending shirt inside out. Hunter explained, "I'm not going to look stupid in front of all of these young ladies in the school. So, I decided to get a different t-shirt."
WWBT reached out to David Clark, the Dinwiddie Public Schools Superintendent, for comment. Clark said, "If you are a Duck Dynasty fan you understand the meaning of the shirt, but if you haven't watched Duck Dynasty you may question if the shirt implies violence. As a school division, we would like to keep our slogans on student shirts as non-violent as possible." Hunter said that he did not mean any harm by sporting the tee.
The members of the Spain family are big fans of the A&E reality show and apparently Hunter’s grandmother gave him the Duck Dynasty shirt. Edna-Jo shared, "We are like major fans. We’re getting ready to go on the Duck Dynasty cruise next summer."
Hunter isn’t the only person this year that has caught flack because of a t-shirt’s message. In September, Isaak Fuquay, whose father is an injured retired Army Corporal, was told by Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona to take off his shirt that showed an eagle with a gun supporting wounded warriors because it featured a weapon. Also, in August a Florida family was kicked out of Universal Studios Orlando because the patriarch, Christian Jarosz, was wearing a shirt that read, “Police Street Crime Unit.” The park said it was a violation of their policy banning non-law enforcement personnel from wearing shirts that may falsely identify them as law enforcement.
