A Chicago-area high school student plans to challenge a suspension he said he received for wearing a T-shirt that advertises for a gun club and features the silhouette of an AK-47.

Chris Borg, an 18-year-old senior at Hinsdale Central High School and an Eagle Scout, made his case before the district’s school board on Monday and asked that the suspension be removed from his record, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Mr. Borg was suspended on May 6 after he refused to turn his T-shirt inside out at the request of the dean of students, Kimberly Dever.

“I decided to go home for the day because I felt it was a infringement of my First Amendment right to freedom of expression,” he told the board. “Pictures of firearms can be found in our history textbooks, but you don’t see people freaking out about that.”

The shirt in question advertises for KentuckyArmoryClub.com, an online gun community designated for “shooters, hunters, LEO’S, military, or casual enthusiasts,” according to its website.

Mr. Borg’s shirt also said, “TeamAK,” though the shirt did not specify that the gun pictured is an AK, the Tribune reported.

Superintendent Bruce Law said the shirt violates the school’s dress code, which states that students are prohibited from wearing clothing that “is deemed vulgar, inappropriate, unsafe or disruptive to the educational process (e.g., advertising/display of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, sexual innuendo).”

“Every school I’ve ever worked at has restrictions on what a student can wear when it’s offensive or could be predicted to be offensive, when it promotes drugs, alcohol or violence,” Mr. Law said, adding that he does not plan to investigate the suspension.

Mr. Law said the teen has the right to fight the suspension, but the decision would ultimately lie with his school’s principal.

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