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No 'memory shirts' allowed at Q.C. High School
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ATTIRE: A group of Queen Creek High School students stand outside of their school after they were told they were not allowed to wear their memorial shirts at school. Fellow student Anibal Mendoza, 17, was shot and killed Aug. 17.
Jennifer Grimes, Tribune
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Should Queen Creek High School students be allowed to wear memorial shirts honoring a slain classmate?
More than a dozen Queen Creek High School students wearing shirts to remember a friend who was killed last week were told they could not wear the shirts at school Monday because it's against the dress code.
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The students wore the black shirts to remember 17-year-old Anibal Mendoza, a former Queen Creek High student who was killed Aug. 17 from a gunshot wound to the head in the Cambria neighborhood east of Queen Creek.
Senior Alisha Rios said she made the shirts as a fundraiser to help the Mendoza family with expenses. Many of the students who wore the $15 shirts to school also helped out at a car wash Saturday and Sunday which raised almost $6,000 for the family, Rios said.
"There's nothing bad about these shirts," said Rios, who sold about 40 shirts. "I made these shirts with no intention of trying to get kicked out."
The shirt has a picture of Anibal Mendoza on the front, with the words, "In loving memory, Anibal Mendoza, 11/1/90 - 8/17/08." On the back are the words, "Forever in our hearts."
The students who wore the memory shirts gathered across the street from the school Monday. They said that when they refused to change their shirts, they were written up for defiance, given in-school suspension or told to leave campus.
Principal Angela Chomokos said the memory shirts are not allowed on campus, as written in the dress code. The students were warned repeatedly in announcements throughout last week not to wear any memory shirts to school, she said.
"It's nothing personal," Chomokos said. "But they need to follow the dress code."
Despite what the students said, Chomokos said no students were sent home. She said many of the students are seniors and might have been told to leave campus because they aren't allowed to hang out after their shortened schedule.
A jar was put in the front office for any students or staff who wanted to donate to the Mendoza family, Chomokos said.
Memory shirts are listed in the school's dress code under "any attire deemed to be gang-related or affiliated with a negative group," including "bandannas, memory shirts, and headgear, including do-rags and hairnets."
"We're here to maintain a safe environment and do everything we can to avoid any conflict," Chomokos said.
Three people were arrested Aug. 17 in connection with Mendoza's death. No new information was available Monday from the Pinal County Attorney's Office.
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