"The National Rifle Association sued Albemarle County's school system Tuesday, accusing administrators of violating a 12-year-old boy's free speech rights by forcing him to turn his NRA T-shirt inside out.

Alan Newsom, 12, wore the purple "NRA Shooting Sports Camp" shirt, which featured silhouettes of three target shooters, to sixth grade at Jack Jouett Middle School in April. The school's vice principal noticed the shirt and told him to turn it inside out because the images of people shooting guns violated school policy, Alan's father, Fred Newsom, said Tuesday.

"There's nothing violent about the shirt," Newsom said, adding that the problem occurred the first time Alan wore the shirt. "He wouldn't wear anything violent."

Alan, who shoots a .22 caliber rifle at paper targets at the Rivanna Rifle and Pistol Club, came home from school discouraged, confused and "a little angry," his father said.

The Newsoms scoured the student handbook, looking for the rule Alan had broken, but couldn't find any mention of guns among the drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, vulgarity and religious or ethnic insults barred from student clothing by the school, Newsom said.

Alan started a petition and eventually gathered about 30 student signatures, but never gave it to anyone.

His father e-mailed the NRA.

"I was disappointed that he was made to feel disapproval about something that he had left that morning feeling proud about," Newsom said.

After the NRA contacted administrators, the school added a provision banning clothing with images of weapons or violence for the 2002-03 school year, according to a release posted Tuesday on the NRA web site.

"All we asked was that they acknowledge that Alan didn't do anything wrong. What we got was that, basically, he did do something wrong. But they wouldn't say what rule he had broken," Newsom said.

Stephen Koleszar, chairman of the county School Board, said he had been unaware of the situation until he was served with the lawsuit Tuesday. Koleszar said each school makes its own dress code.

He declined to comment further. School Board attorney Mark Trank was unavailable for comment Tuesday night. Principal Russell Jarrett declined to comment on both the suit and the school dress code.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, targets the principal and vice principal and the county School Board and school superintendent.

It accuses the school of violating Alan's rights to free speech and due process and seeks $100,000 in compensation and $50,000 in punitive damages.

"The T-shirt clearly depicts individuals involved in shooting sports. The images are in no way inappropriate or violent. This is a blatant infringement of young Alan's constitutional rights," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a statement on the web site.

The suit also challenges the new rule barring images of weapons and violence, arguing that the provision is too broad and could include such emblems as the U.S. Army logo and the Great Seal of the United States.

"This is clearly a case of political correctness running unchecked," LaPierre said." (Adrienne Schwisow, The Daily Progress, September 18, 2002)