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School bans punishment T-shirts

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FORT MORGAN, Colo., March 13 (UPI) -- A Colorado woman said her children's school is overstepping its bounds by refusing to allow her children to wear their punishment T-shirts to class.

Jessica Rocha said her 8-year-old daughter, Aurora, liked to steal from Walmart, her mother and other people's homes, so she sent her to school at Green Acres Elementary in Fort Morgan wearing a homemade T-shirt reading, "I steal. Steal means taking property belonging to someone else without permission," KUSA-TV, Denver, reported Wednesday.

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"I steal. Please watch me," the back of the shirt read.

Rocha said she was planning to make her 9-year-old son, Xavier, wear a similar shirt describing him as a "bully," but she discovered the principal at the school had made Aurora cover up the shirt and district officials told her the punishment shirts would not be allowed.

"I respect her right to do what's best for her family," said Ron Echols, superintendent of Fort Morgan Schools. "But, I wish she would leave the school out of it. We cannot support something that is demeaning to the kids."

However, Rocha said the school is overstepping by barring her punishment.

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"I don't think a T-shirt is harming my child at all," Rocha said.

"We are trying to parent at home, so they don't end up in foster care. So, they don't end up in jail. So, they don't end up in prison later on," Rocha said. "I am trying to be proactive in their school life as well as their home life."

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