A Winnipeg Teen was Disciplined for Wearing ‘Gang Paraphernalia’

A special needs high school student from Winnipeg was reportedly suspended for wearing "gang clothing" that turned out to be a baseball cap sold at Urban Planet.

Cadan Walterson, 17, is a Grade 12 student at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate. His mother, Victoria, told the CBC he recently went to school wearing a hat featuring a "black and white bandana pattern" that she'd purchased for him at Urban Planet inside the local mall. But Cadan was pulled aside by school administrators, his mother said, and was told he was violating Winnipeg School Division's clothing policy by wearing "gang paraphernalia." "He was really upset about it," Walterson said, noting her son has an intellectual disability and functions socially at the level of the sixth-grader. "He's not a gang member, he's a special needs student in a special ed class." Radean Carter, a spokeswoman Winnipeg School Division (WSD), told the CBC the hat was taken away from Cadan, and he was warned not to wear it again but wasn't suspended. She said the WSD updated its code of conduct in 2014 to include the following clause: "Gang involvement or gang insignia will not be tolerated on school sites or WSD property." Carter said the reference to "insignia" is "to protect students from inadvertently putting themselves or other students at risk." In response, YM, the company that makes the hats and also supplies apparel to racy companies like Suzy Shier and Bluenotes, said it's simply keeping up with a "popular print… that can be found on everything thing from running shoes to women's swimwear." "We are selling mainstream fashion, not gang clothing." Organized experts have pointed out that most gang members are smart enough not to brand themselves in obvious ways these days. "They're not the street gangs of West Side Story," Robert Gordon, a Simon Fraser University criminology professor, told VICE in an interview about Calgary gangs. "The last time there was any significant street gang activity with people running around wearing different colours—that sort of classic American inner urban street gang activity—we haven't had that since the late 80s, early 90s." Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.