OLIVEHURST, Calif. – A California honor student was forced to turn his American Flag-themed shirt inside out because school officials believe it could be construed as affiliation with the “Norteno” gang.

Dustin Cole, 12, wore a shirt to Yuba Gardens Intermediate School last Tuesday that his mother purchased from Kohl’s – a gray t-shirt with the silhouette of the California bear filled in with the American Flag, the word “California” in all caps below, and a red star with a faint number 31 inside.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

School officials forced Cole to turn it inside out because hidden symbols contained within the shirt supposedly signify gang affiliation, and therefore violate the school’s dress code, the Appeal-Democrat reports.

Cole’s mother, Lori Carpenter, told Fox 40 she came home from work Tuesday to find her son doing his homework with his shirt on inside-out.

“I asked him why,” Carpenter said. “He said he was ‘dress coded’ at school because the stars were gang related.”

Marysville Joint Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Ramiro Carreon explained the district relies on local law enforcement authorities to determine what’s gang-related and what’s not.

“Our local task force, they identify colors, they identify designs, they identify all of the things that we should be aware of,” Carreon said.

Yuba Gardens Principal Kari Yist told the Appeal-Democrat Cole’s shirt violated the student dress code in two ways, and Yuba County Sheriff’s Department gang unit detective Ben Martin elaborated on exactly how.

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

From the Appeal-Democrat:

The red star on the Bear Flag, which represents the Lone Star flag flown above Monterey in 1836 during Juan Alvarado’s revolt against the Mexican government, is also used by the Norteño criminal street gang, said Ben Martin, a detective with the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department gang unit.

Red is the gang’s color, the five points of the star represent “1+4” and the 14th letter of the alphabet is “N.”

Inside the red star on Cole’s shirt, the number 31 is visible. The 31 on the shirt represents that California is the 31st state, but in gang iconography, 31 is the inverse of 13, which is used by the Sureño gang.

Scary stuff.

Carpenter, however, still thinks it’s a pretty big stretch to connect the patriotic American flag department store shirt she purchased for her son to violent street gangs, and posted to Facebook last week to express her opinion.

“He’s an honor roll student, he’s in California Junior Scholastic Federation and he gets As,” Carpenter posted. “He’s a star student but he can’t wear a star.”

School officials insist the dress code rules are designed to keep kids safe, and each school can craft specific dress codes for students through a special process involving the PTA and Yuba County Gang Task Force, Superintendent Gay Todd said.

The process allows school officials to punish students with special restrictions based on what’s fashionable with local gangs at the moment, officials said.

“Gang members are very good at taking things that are absolutely honorable and making them into something that is a problem,” Todd told the Appeal-Democrat.

Gang task force officials told the site the Nortenos also use the NorCal clothing brand, the outline of the state, the five-point star, the California bear, California 49ers gear and other iconography to signify affiliation.

“I would say (schools are put in a difficult position,” said Make Bullard, Yuba City gang detective. “They have to take clothing on face value, and it would be hard to tell one kid he couldn’t wear it and another that he could.”

Regardless, Carpenter and many, many folks who commented on her Facebook post think officials are getting carried away.

“I understand that they have a job to keep everybody safe,” Carpenter said. “But I think that it’s going way too far.”