School Yanks Band T-Shirt Over Evolution

Folks, this one is hard to believe...


SEDALIA, Mo. — T-shirts promoting the Smith-Cotton High School band's fall program have been recalled because of concerns about the shirt's evolution theme.

Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt said parents complained to him after the band marched in the Missouri State Fair parade. Though the shirts don't violate the school's dress code, Pollitt noted that the district is required by law to remain neutral on religion.

The light gray shirts feature an image of a monkey progressing through various stages of evolution until eventually becoming a human. Each figure holds a brass instrument that also evolves, illustrating the theme "Brass Evolutions."

"I was disappointed with the image on the shirt," said Sherry Melby, a band parent who teaches in the district. "I don't think evolution should be associated with our school."

But other parents were just as dismayed that the shirts were taken away from students at the Sedalia school.

Sophomore band member Denyel Luke said the reaction by some to the evolution theme was a little extreme.

"It's not like we are saying God is bad," Luke said. "We aren't promoting evolution."

The district will have to absorb the $700 cost of the shirts, which will be replaced as soon as administrators approve a design for the new ones.