A t-shirt, inspired by the film The Dark Knight, the latest Batman movie, designed and printed by the Student Government Association for distribution to its members was not approved by the administration, forcing the SGA to retrieve all the shirts that had been distributed.
Members of the administration denied the Student Government Association permission to distribute the t-shirt because of problems with the design, which featured a drawing of the Joker, a character from the film, holding a Joker card in the front of the shirt, while behind him a bat signal with the letters "SGA" shone in the sky.
Every year the SGA designs a t-shirt, and prints and distributes them for all SGA members to wear on days that they have meetings or special events. For the past two years it has been a tradition to have a super hero themed shirt. The first year it was Superman. Last year it was Spider-Man.
Considering the epic release of the summer smash hit The Dark Knight, the SGA decided to follow suit with a Batman themed shirt. Chad Eason, an SGA Vice President, designed the shirt, which was approved by its sponsors, Mr. Peppel and Ms. McManus.
The SGA had already printed, and distributed the t-shirts, but they were confiscated the first day they were worn.
At the next administrative staff meeting, the t-shirt was brought up for analysis and discussion. The general agreement was that the shirt had some negative connotations attached to the picture. The main negativities were that The Joker can encourage violence and the way that he was holding the playing card (The Joker card, coincidentally) could be mistaken for holding up his middle finger, not his index and middle finger. Another problem that could have "saved" the shirt is the layout and sizing of the characters on it. The Joker is the predominant figure; the eye catcher. On the opposite side of the shirt you can see some buildings and the Batman sign shining into the sky. In the stream of light shines the initials "SGA."
The Senior Sub-School Principal, Mrs. Manns, questioned the meaning of the t-shirts. "It doesn't represent our school motto of A Culture of Excellence." Ms. Manns also expressed confusion about The Joker. "Who does The Joker represent at Mount Vernon?"
Chad Eason, the designer, explained the effect of the administrations decision to ban the shirt. Eason said, "My life is like the chaos of Gotham City as my dreams were crushed by the stifling hand of administration. Now I'm working on the next design of the new SGA t-shirt."
Eason further explained that he didn't even think that the shirt was all that bad. According to Eason, when Ms. McManus called him on his phone to break the news, he was not mad but surprised. Eason continued, "I didn't think that it was bad because it was just a cartoon."
Ms. McManus, one of the two sponsors for the SGA, gave the initial permission to print the shirt. McManus explained that she didn't have any problems at first with the shirt, but attributed that to the fact the she doesn't "look" at the clothes students wear the same as an administrator would. As a teacher, she doesn't have to deal with discipline in the dress-code violation area.
McManus continued, "To an administrator, it's seen in a different light. Now all shirts have to go through administration to get approved."
