hand-drawn UT tshirt

Laura Snyder/Facebook

University offers scholarship to fourth-grader after he got bullied for homemade T-shirt

It's a nice story, but it highlights greater problems with the American higher education system.

Photo of Siobhan Ball 

Siobhan Ball

Internet Culture

Posted on Sep 13, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 3:58 am CDT

The University of Tennessee has given an offer of honorary admission and a full-ride scholarship to a fourth-grader after he was bullied for wearing a homemade T-shirt with the university’s logo on it. His teacher made a Facebook post about the incident to see if the university would send him an official T-shirt, as the reason for his homemade one was that he wasn’t able to find one in time for his school’s college colors day. UT responded first by sending the entire class a box full of university swag with hand-drawn copies of the boy’s version of their logo pinned to them.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10114194128988573&id=5239432

Here’s the full story from the student’s teacher:

9/6/19 – UT really outdid themselves🧡!! I was so excited to surprise my student today!! I’m not even sure I can put into words his reaction. It was so heartwarming. My student was so amazed at all the goodies in the box. He proudly put on the jersey and one of the many hats in the box. All who saw had either goosebumps or tears while we explained that he had inspired and touched the lives of so many people. When I told him that his design was being made into a real shirt and people wanted to wear it, his jaw dropped. He had a big smile on his face, walked taller, and I could tell his confidence grew today! Thank you to the UT Nation for that!! 🧡🧡🧡
When we brought the box upstairs to share with the rest of my class they were surprised as well!! I had a lot of fun pulling each item out and showing it to them. They were really impressed with the notes that were included as well! Then the fun part set in.. my student got to pass out UT swag to his classmates. They were ecstatic!! They immediately put on the bracelets and asked if they could fill up the water bottles. Then they went to our class sink and soaked the cooling towels to put around their necks. My students even enjoyed using their new pens to complete their writing quiz! While the kids were filling water bottles and waiting to water down their towels, it made this teacher so proud to see the kids congratulating my student. High fives, hugs, pats on the back could be seen from the kids. This experience is uniting my class even more than I could have imagined, and it was truly amazing to witness!! The Vols spirit was definitely felt In my classroom today! THANK YOU so much so all who have made this such a positive experience for my student, and also showing the rest of my class what it’s like to come together and be kind. Personally, I’m looking forward to wearing the shirt he designed. It’ll be the one and only piece of orange clothing that this Seminoles fan will ever wear! ❤️💛 & 🧡!!

9/5/19 at 9:15pm – I don’t even know where to begin. I am so incredibly amazed at the outpouring of love and support for my student!! So many people have reached out over the last 24 hours and I have truly lost track. I am trying very hard to keep up! Please forgive me if I don’t answer right away. I want to say a huge THANK YOU to each and everyone of you who took the time to read and share the post. Because of this, my student will be receiving an awesome care package from the University of Tennessee tomorrow morning!🧡 I’m so excited to share this with him (he doesn’t know about any of this yet)!! Out of respect for my student and his family, I will not be posting a picture of him, but I will post a picture of everything he receives and will let you know about his reaction. I hope everyone understands 🤞🏻. I will never be able to tag everyone who made this possible, but please know that I am deeply grateful to each of you. You all have taken this above and beyond what I had ever imagined. The Vols fan base has really impressed this Noles fan with their kindness. I am working to read through all of the comments and will share a few of them with my student each day. By the looks of it, he will have enough to hear every day for the rest of this school year. That’s so awesome to me!!
He is definitely a Vols fan, and the Vols Nation has made sure he will be set for college colors day for quite some time! 🧡🧡🧡

Update: I’m so amazed, humbled, and a little bit overwhelmed at the response to this post! So many people have reached out, and I’m really looking forward to sharing this with him!!! Thank you all so much for your kind words of support and encouragement for my student!!! 🧡

Last week, my elementary school participated in college colors day. When I told my students about this day a week before, this particular child came to me and told me that he wanted to wear a University of Tennessee shirt, but he didn’t have one. We discussed that he could wear an orange shirt to show his spirit. He told me every day leading up to it that he had an orange shirt that he was going to wear. So when the day finally arrived, he was SO EXCITED to show me his shirt. I was impressed that he took it one step further to make his own label. After lunch, he came back to my room, put his head on on his desk and was crying. Some girls at the lunch table next to his (who didn’t even participate in college colors day) had made fun of his sign that he had attached to his shirt. He was DEVASTATED. I know kids can be cruel, I am aware that it’s not the fanciest sign, BUT this kid used the resources he had available to him to participate in a spirit day (one that I celebrated all week: Go Noles)! I plan to get him a University of Tennessee shirt, but was wondering if anyone has any connections to the University of Tennessee. I wanted to make it a little extra special for him. If anyone has any contacts that they’d be willing to share, please let me know. Thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10114204493582843&set=pcb.10114194128988573&type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10114204493777453&set=pcb.10114194128988573&type=3&theater

The university went on to publish a statement announcing the scholarship, as well as the fact that they will now be manufacturing T-shirts with the boy’s design on it and donating the profits to anti-bullying charity Stomp Out Bullying.

Many people praised the university’s actions, with Twitter user @worriedgrandma7 saying, “a wonderful piece of humanity within this cold country.”

https://twitter.com/T31590364/status/1172491821760602117

https://twitter.com/TeresaU98613187/status/1172470127620739072

Some are more cynical however, commenting on the amount of good press the university is getting out of it.

https://twitter.com/SRavkin/status/1172469695125106690

As well using the story to highlight the ruinously expensive college tuition fees across America.

https://twitter.com/lilyjareth2001/status/1172562085412298752

Though in the interest of fairness, one Twitter user, @Dreg_Society, pointed out that the University of Tennessee does offer free tuition for people earning under $50,000, with room and board thrown in for those earning under $40,000 (if only more universities did the same).

People are also commenting on the disparity between how this student and Black children in similar situations are rewarded. Journalist George M. Johnson compared it to the case of  Jaylin Clyburn, a Black sixth-grader whose lawn-mowing business, which he started to raise money for his eventual college fees, came to national prominence only weeks ago. Far from receiving a scholarship, however, Clyburn was initially given only a new lawnmower and some signed memorabilia by the Carolina Panthers. While the Panthers’ owner has now made a “huge” contribution to Clyburn’s college fund, this is at least in part a response to the backlash over the fact that his early gifts were tools for his business, seeming to justify the idea that a twelve-year-old child should have to spend all his free time working in order to afford an education.

https://twitter.com/BrianLivesInOH/status/1172482456626388993

https://twitter.com/ilovetovacation/status/1172486069524156416

https://twitter.com/nagghammadi/status/1172502741589090304

https://twitter.com/SpideyHim/status/1172572915063230465

https://twitter.com/UnmitagatedGall/status/1172569651445927936

While the University of Tennessee’s actions are certainly great for the boy who received the scholarship, they’ve highlighted far greater problems with America’s entire system of higher education.

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*First Published: Sep 13, 2019, 3:37 pm CDT

Siobhan Ball

Siobhan Ball is a historian, archivist, and journalist. She also writes for Autostraddle and bi.org

Siobhan Ball