"Attorneys for an Albemarle County middle school student are appealing a federal judge's decision that prohibits the boy from wearing a National Rifle Association T-shirt in school while a civil suit against the county School Board about the T-shirt continues.

Alan Newsom and his father, Fred Newsom, are seeking $100,000 in compensatory and $50,000 in punitive damages from Albemarle County Public Schools because, they say, school administrators at Jack Jouett Middle School violated Alan's right to free speech and free expression by making him turn his purple 'NRA Sports Shooting Camp' T-shirt inside out.

U.S. District Judge Norman K Moon ruled in December against a preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiff, which would have allowed the 13-year-old boy to wear the T-shirt in school while the legal challenge moves forward. Now, NRA lawyers who are fighting Newsom's legal battle are appealing Moon's decision in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The case in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, which was supposed to go to trial this month, is on hold while the appeal moves through the 4th Circuit. Oral arguments for the appeal are expected to be set by September.

The shirt has the NRA Sports Shooting Camp logo, consisting of the letters 'NRA' in green, orange and yellow, with black silhouetted figures holding firearms superimposed upon the letters. Underneath the block letters is printed: 'Shooting Sports Camp,'

Jouett's vice principal thought the images were of sharpshooters, which reminded her of the shootings at Columbine High School and other incidents of gun-related violence.

'[The vice principal] believed that the shirt had the potential to disrupt the instructional process since the graphics on the shirt were so large and bold as to be distracting and she feared that Newsom's fellow middle school students would also associate the images with the events at Columbine High School and other incidents of school violence,' court documents state.

Daniel Zavadil, an attorney for the Fairfax-based NRA, said the organization was serious about fighting the T-shirt issue, even if it means taking the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

'We are very much-going to continue to pursue it,' Zavadil said in an interview this week.

Among seven organizations weighing in on Newsom's side are the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the office of Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, forming an unexpected united front.

'I think it's very powerful that the attorney general weighed in on our side,' Zavadil said.

An attorney representing Albemarle County Public Schools could not be reached for comment on the case.

'This is one of those rare occasions where school authorities have stepped beyond the constitutional limitation on their authority,' the Kilgore brief states.

The attorney general's office concedes that in order to keep schools safe, there needs to be some measures that curtail students' routine freedoms, but says that students' constitutional rights must be protected.

The brief continues: 'While the temptation may be understandable, it is not permissible to concede constitutional values to fear in a manner that has no apparent or actual connection to preventing disruption or violence.'

In a brief supporting the School Board's case, the National School Boards Association argues that there is no proof that Newsom had intended to convey a particular message by wearing the T-shirt. and that fellow students were not likely to understand the message, two key factors that must be in place for the wearing of the T-shirt to be considered constitutionally protected activity.

Zavadil called the school system's policy prohibiting messages on clothing that relate to weapons and violence 'overbroad' and 'subject to selective enforcement.' He cited other popular logos that would be subject to the ruling, including the seal of Virginia, the insignia of the Albemarle High School Patriots and the logo for the University of Virginia.

Meanwhile, Alan Newsom, who takes target practice at the Rivanna Rifle and Pistol Club, is anticipating his eighth grade year at Jouett.

His father said Alan is nervous about the possibility of being called to testify in the case and has felt the effects of challenging the school system. Fred Newsom was hesitant, but offered this: 'I would say he's had some social consequences by being singled out by the school.' " (Liesel Nowak, Daily Progress, July 6, 2003)