Mean Teens Wear Shirts With Opposing Player's Mugshot to Soccer Game
When Alex Rittenhouse showed up to play a soccer game against his former high school last Wednesday, he saw his mugshot printed on T-shirts worn by old classmates and their parents. "I was shocked, first, and then I thought, 'How did they get this picture?' Because I had never even seen the picture," his father Kevin Rittenhouse told WXIN.
"I know kids will be kids, I know they make mistakes, but to see an adult wearing this T-shirt—that was unbelievable to me," Kevin Rittenhouse went on to tell WRTV. Alex Rittenhouse was apparently arrested by police last summer after being caught with marijuana and his father turned him into the police.
"Authorities confiscated his phone and that's how they came up with the other names of the other players and they assumed my nephew was a 'nark.' That's when the other players and parents started turning against my nephew and my brother," Kelly Chastain told WRTV.
Alex Rittenhouse transferred out of Marion High School in Marion, Ind. after news of his arrest lead to an onslaught of "extreme" bullying, his family said.
The school has since cracked down on students wearing the shirt, calling it "a disappointing situation" in a statement released to WXIN.
"Maybe if they (thought they) were being funny, you know, but that's not the right kind of funny...They want to brush it off like nothing happened and I think people need to know," Kevin Rittenhouse told WXIN.