RAVENA, N.Y. – The oversensitivity of public schools to anything that resembles a weapon reached a new milestone last week after a New York district forced a National Guard recruiter to stop giving away free T-shirts.

The Times Union reports officials at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School approached a National Guard recruiter on campus last Friday and asked him to put away his free shirts because they allegedly violated the school dress code.

The scandalous shirts depicted the American flag with the silhouette of a solder, who was carrying a rifle as many of them do.

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Interim superintendent Alan McCartney told the news site the district shut down the giveaway because the logo included a weapon, and that’s inappropriate attire for high school kids.

“They’re not allowed to wear anything that would have a weapon on it,” McCartney said. “Our main purpose is education. Wearing pictures of weapons brings to mind those things in our society that are not pertinent to education.”

Apparently, McCartney doesn’t think a soldier’s sacred duty to protect and serve the citizens of this country is “pertinent to education,” despite the fact that public education would not be possible without them. Heaven forbid students ponder their freedoms, and the sacrifices soldiers made on their behalf.

The boss man was, however, gracious enough to allow students to wear their new National Guard digs for the rest of the day, as long as they promised to never wear them at school again.

According to the Times Union, “School dress code prohibits students from wearing anything that promotes or endorses the use of alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs or encourages other illegal or violent activities.”

It’s hard to imagine how a soldier, who is sworn to protect Americans by working to ensure peace, fits into the description, but this certainly isn’t the first case of school administrators employing their seemingly boundless capacity for creative interpretation.

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That reality wasn’t lost on parent Jenifer Delisle, who told Albany’s CBS-6 “there’s a big difference between violent crime and people who serve us and keep us safe and keep our freedom.”

The Guard recruiter, of course, complied with the district’s demands immediately, and Guard officials said they would use a different promotional shirt in the future.

The recruiter returned this week to talk to students about other ways they can be patriotic, which resulted in a group of students who volunteered to clean a school monument, the news site reports.

“The negative became a big learning experience and a positive,” McCartney said.

And that’s what the National Guard and other branches of America’s armed forces are all about. They stand for everything students should strive to be: loyal, hardworking, organized, and dedicated team players.

It’s just a shame that school officials couldn’t see through their strict dress code policy to help highlight such a positive influence on students, and opted instead to liken the National Guard shirts to those with pot leaves, beer advertisements and other “illegal or violent activities.”

What makes this case even more egregious, though, is that school officials reportedly approved the sale of shirts promoting a recent Drama Club play about sharp shooter Annie Oakley: Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun,” according to Menrec.com.

“The Drama Club’s Facebook page advertised a need for props which included ‘2 toy pistols with holders,’” the news site reports.