Off-color clothing makes school see red
By Eric Hubler Denver Post Education Writer

Julie Duncan turned herself into a walking civics lesson Tuesday by wearing a red T-shirt bearing an American flag and the phrase "Freedom of Religion" on the front.

The 17-year-old senior at Abraham Lincoln High School was suspended - as she knew she would be when she got up that morning.

It wasn't the message that was problematic but the medium. Red was one of several colors banned from the southwest Denver school this semester because it has a gang association - in this case, the Bloods.

Most students who returned for second semester Tuesday complied with principal Kathy Callum's plea to wear only school colors - navy, gray and white - until a more formal dress code can be worked out.

"Pretty much everybody just wore what they asked for," said student body co-president Joaquin Vazquez. He was wearing a checked shirt that had all three colors in it.

Ten of Lincoln's 1,400 students were suspended for refusing to change into white T-shirts, student adviser and head football coach Antonio Esquibel said.

Cheerleading captain and honor student Marlena Borras wore red contact lenses, "to make a statement," she said. The 11th-grader was not suspended.

Ninth-grader Adam Perez wore a shiny University of North Carolina track suit. UNC's baby blue is another banned color because an area gang, the Surenos, favors it.

But they didn't get the chance to suspend Adam; he came in only to transfer out of Lincoln and into North High.

He said he wore the track suit, a Christmas gift, "so I could get everybody upset." He plans to wear blue every day at North.

The protesters had a grown-up ally: Marlena Borras' mom, Marie, is a member of Lincoln's collaborative decision-making committee, which recently blocked Callum's effort to require school colors or uniforms.

Marie Borras stood outside the school, videotaping suspended students as they left the building and threatening a lawsuit. She said she was inspired in part by her son, a Lincoln grad who is now a Marine preparing for action in Iraq.

"He's fighting for our freedoms," she said.

Lincoln doesn't really have much of a gang presence, activities director Terry Vlasin said, and she supports principal Callum's efforts to keep it that way.

"I don't feel unsafe working here, but I am happy we're making an attempt to have a more structured environment," she said.