12-Year-Old Pulled Out of Class For Hell Raising T-Shirt?

By Eryn Sun, Christian Post Reporter Friday, March 18, 2011

Does Jesus scare the HELL out of you?

For one 12-year-old middle school student, the answer was an emphatic yes.

Michelle Ramirez was pulled out of class at North Kirkwood Middle School in Kirkwood, Mo., on Wednesday for wearing a T-shirt that read, "JESUS, HE SCARES THE HELL OUT OF YOU."

Administrators claimed that under the Kirkwood dress code policy, the use of the word "hell" was inappropriate and vulgar, according to the principal and school district officer Ginger Fletcher.

Reported by FOX 2 news, Fletcher stated, "Outside the school environment, it might be fine. Anything within the school that… might create a disruption in the school, we'll ask the student to modify the garment."

But Ramirez refuted, "It wasn't disruptive until they said something about it." She had worn the shirt many times before, without any controversy, she said.

While the school considered the use of "hell" a "slang" word that might be offensive to other students, Ramirez and her family all stood by the belief that the word hell denotes a place, not a slang.

"I don't think it's a slang word because it's all capitalized, and even though the 'HELL' is a different color, it still means the same thing: That he does scare the hell out of you, that you're not letting the devil in," responded Ramirez, who received the shirt from her youth group that specializes in extreme messages to promote their beliefs.

"To us, hell is a place… It's not… She's not using it as a slang. So if she's not using it as a slang, then the shirt should be okay," commented her mother, Christina Ramirez.

"It's federal law that you cannot ask a student to remove an emblem, insignia, or garment including a religious emblem," the Christina Ramirez further explained to FOX.

Missouri school officials insist that they don't necessarily disagree with the message on the shirt, just the questionable meaning of the language on it.

When the school called Ramirez's mother regarding the issue, she told her daughter she could change back into the shirt if she felt convicted to wear it, unsatisfied with the school's explanation.

Ramirez decided to change back into the shirt while on her way to class again, and was promptly pulled out of class, separated from her peers to do her work elsewhere.

"I'm proud that she stood up for what she believed in," said Ramirez's mother to FOX.

Though Ramirez and her family felt a double standard in the school's position, where other classmates wore shirts with gang insinuations – one shirt even reading, "We kick balls" – she stated that she would not wear the shirt to school again after she and her father read a passage in the Bible on Thursday that said Jesus respected the law of the land.

Bearing witness to her beliefs from an early age, Ramirez desires to become a youth pastor one day. She is also an active member of her school and part of the student council.

Interestingly, North Kirkwood Middle School also serves as the site of a Presbyterian ministry called Greentree Community Church on Sunday mornings as reported by Riverfront Times.