Arizona Teen-Ager Scolded for Wearing ‘Penguin’ T-Shirt
A 14-year-old was reprimanded for wearing a T-shirt to school depicting The Penguin, Batman’s arch enemy. His mother said the principal complained that wearing the shirt was a sign of devil worship.
James Bateman said he is tired of the rigidity in Colorado City, a primarily polygamous, breakaway-Mormon town in the Arizona Strip, a mile from the Utah line. He said he was hassled by students and teachers two years ago when he wore short-sleeved shirts to school.
“They kept saying that I was wicked,” he said in Wednesday’s edition of the Arizona Republic. “But I just think I’m normal.”
On Nov. 4, James wore the T-shirt picturing actor Danny DeVito as The Penguin. By lunchtime he was in the office of Principal Lawrence Steed, who “told me that my T-shirt was not appropriate in his school,” the youth said in an affidavit. He said Steed told him “that it interferes with my learning” and “that I must go home and change it.”
No one answered the telephone at the school on Wednesday, Veterans Day, and a woman at Steed’s home said he was out of town and would not return until next week.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
