Ravena

New York Army National Guard T-shirts featuring a gun on the front were banned from Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School on Friday after being deemed inappropriate.

"They're not allowed to wear anything that would have a weapon on it," said district Interim Superintendent Alan McCartney, referring to the student dress code. "Our main purpose is education. Wearing pictures of weapons brings to mind those things in our society that are not pertinent to education."

A Guard recruiter on Friday was handing out swag at the school that included shirts with the logo of a silhouetted soldier aiming a rifle, said National Guard spokesman Col. Richard Goldenberg.

School officials saw the logo and asked that the shirts no longer be passed out because they didn't comply with the school's dress code, Goldenberg said. "We did it right on the spot."

Recruiters in the future will instead have shirts with a different logo.

School dress code prohibits students from wearing anything that promotes or endorses the use of alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs or encourages other illegal or violent activities.

The students were allowed to wear the shirts the remainder of the day on Friday but will not be allowed to wear them on campus again, McCartney said.

The recruiter, whose name was not released, returned to the school on Tuesday to discuss the issue and talk with students.

The conversation included other ways students can show their patriotism, McCartney said. As a result, some of the students volunteered to clean a monument on the school grounds.

"The negative became a big learning experience and a positive," he said.

kclukey@timesunion.com • 518-454-5467