Student Suspended For Wearing a Pepsi T-Shirt!
by Todd Wiese
toddw@theroc.org
Yep! Another student has gotten himself in trouble at school for wearing a t-shirt the officials didn't like. And just what offensive death-metal band graced the kid's chest? Cradle O' Filth? Marilyn Manson? NO! Pepsi Cola! Mike Cameron,19, a Senior at Greenbrier High School in Evans, GA, was suspended for one day for wearing the Pepsi t-shirt on official Coke Day! "In my eyes, I didn't do anything wrong," said Mike.
"We had the regional president (of Coca-Cola) here and people flew in from Atlanta to do us the honor of being resource speakers." complained Gloria Hamilton, the principal of Greenbrier High, in defense of Coke Education Day. "It's not a Coke-Pepsi war issue. It has nothing to do with that. It was a student deliberately being disuptive and rude." The event was organized as part of a $500.00 contest ran by the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Augusta.
Mike's prank (and that's ALL that it was, a PRANK) not only involved wearing the shirt on Coke Day, but also in ruining a group photo where all the students stood in the form of the Coke logo. At the last minute when the picture was to be taken, Mike removed an outer shirt and displayed his Pepsi t-shirt. Coke executives seemed to take it better than Gloria Hamilton did. "The kid did what a kid does," said Diana Garza from Coke. "We have people coming into the World Coca-Cola (museum) in Atlanta wearing Pepsi shirts." Get over it, Gloria! Coke did!
Besides, what the hell does ANY cola, Coke OR Pepsi, have to do with public education? Selling out a students right to express his opinion (in this case his choice of soft drink) to win some contest sponsored by a COLA COMPANY is insane! Public schools are not funded by silly contests or multi-national conglomerates! They're funded by American tax dollars. This incident shows us not only the problems of abuse of power by school officials but also what a mess our school system is in when we have to resort to suspending kids for choosing the WRONG COLA!
Pepsi spokesman, Brad Shaw was as amused (if not angered) as we are, it seems over the incident. "It sounds like Mike's obviously a trendsetter with impeccable taste in clothes. We're going to make sure he's got plenty of Pepsi shirts to wear in the future once we track him down."
If you want to tell principal Gloria Hamilton to stick to concentrating on the challenge of educating America's future instead of taking the Pepsi Challenge, you can reach her at this address:
Greenbrier High School
5114 Riverwood Pkwy, Evans, GA 30809-6628
tel. (706) 650-6040
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Don't know how true it is, but if it is, it's messed up.
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