Child suspended for wearing Pepsi shirt on Coke Day
© The Associated Press

EVANS, Ga. - It's the real thing all right - suspension.

High school senior Mike Cameron is serving a one-day suspension today for wearing a Pepsi shirt on Coke Day, an event school officials crafted in an attempt to win a $500 contest run by the Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

The boy was showing disrespect to guests - the Coke executives who had flown in for the day Friday, Greenbrier High School's principal said.

''I know it sounds bad - 'Child suspended for wearing Pepsi shirt on Coke Day,''' principal Gloria Hamilton said. ''It really would have been acceptable ... if it had just been in-house, but we had the regional president here and people flew in from Atlanta to do us the honor of being resource speakers. These students knew we had guests.''

Cameron, 19, said he wore the Pepsi logo as a joke. ''That's my personality,'' he said. ''I don't like to follow the trend of everyone else.''

Mrs. Hamilton said Cameron also ruined a school picture, a violation that has drawn six-day suspensions in the past. Cameron said he didn't know a picture was planned.

The Coke-themed day was part of an effort to win the contest. The award will go to the school that comes up with the best method of distributing promotional discount cards to students.

School officials also integrated Coke into class instruction for the day, invited Coke executives from Atlanta headquarters 100 miles away as speakers and gathered students outside to spell ''Coke'' for the photograph.

Cameron said no one asked him to remove the Pepsi shirt, and he changed into the Coke shirt later in the day. After he changed, he said, assistant principal Michael Kennedy took him out of class and asked if he'd been wearing a Pepsi shirt.

When Cameron said he had, he was taken to the principal's office and given a one-day suspension.

AP-NY-03-25-98 1231EST
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press