SCHOOL CANCELS CLOTHING PROHIBITION

WINNECONE, Wis. (AP) -- School authorities have rescinded a prohibition
against student clothing bearing a brand name that a principal feared might
advertise drug use.

The directive forbade students from wearing garments in school bearing the
Billabong label because " bong" is a slang term for a marijuana pipe.

Students protested. Officials decided to let them wear articles displaying
Billabong or any other brand, like Adidas or Nike, Superintendent Robert
Reinke said.

" Billabong" is an Australian aborigine word for lagoon or backwater. It
was adopted by a sporting goods company that has branched out into clothing.

The brand became fashionable in time for Winneconne High School to begin
class last week with junior Adam Szadkowski having purchased six Billabong
shirts.

Because of Principal Ed Dombrowski' s directive, a teacher sent Szadkowski
to a rest room to turn his shirt inside out, concealing the brand word.

" It' s ridiculous, " Szadkowski, a member of the junior-class student
council, said at the time. " I could maybe understand if the shirts said '
bill-a-bong' but not ' Billabong.' Are they going to ban us from wearing a
shirt that says ' potato' just because it has the word ' pot' in it?"

" It feels good that we' ve worked this out, " he said after Dombrowski' s
ruling was nullified. " It won' t be a controversy again."

The issue pays a dividend, Dombrowski said.

" We hope students become more involved and recognize that we want to hear
from them and that there are many appropriate ways to communicate with us,
" he said.

" Every now and then you hear about these, what I call, storms in a teacup
where people read into an image something that isn' t there, " Billabong
USA president Paul Naude said Thursday.