By Aidan Brooks and Michael Karlis

The Student Council T-shirt design that read “Hail the Hill” was retracted in favor of a new style over the course of the past week. Members of Student Council (Stuco) have said the design of the shirt was changed because of complaints that the t-shirt had connotations to Heil Hitler.

Freshman Stuco member Cammi Mcdonald said that Stuco was called to session to discuss the controversy.

“The officers (seniors Olivia Spar, Sarah Durr, Parker Petruni)  came into the meeting and explained that complaints were made that the shirt referenced Hitler,” Said Mcdonald.

Stuco member Jon Katz, a designer of the T shirt, had private meeting with principal Evan Bishop prior to the Stuco meeting.

“When Bishop talked to me he said that he had received some complaints from students and parents that the shirt was in reference to ‘Heil Hitler,” Katz said.

Katz was discouraged by the complaints.

“I’m a practicing Jew. I have family members that died in the Holocaust, and I was one of the people who designed the shirt. I was not offended by it,” Katz said.

While he is bothered by the interpretation, “It was the school community, not administration, confusing it with offensive remarks,” Katz said.

Although Stuco members stated that the shirt was removed because of its reference to Heil Hitler, Bishop declined to comment about the content of the shirt.

“We’re always looking for ways to evaluate our organizations and our clubs and the things that we do, and I think that the Student Council met and decided that they wanted to go in a different direction with the shirts,” Bishop said.

Stuco adviser Brian Prescott admitted to having looked back and questioning whether it was best to print the shirt as it stood, even asking himself, “Where did we get this?” Still, he denied that the complaints were why the shirt was removed, citing that Student Council officers simply didn’t receive enough positive feedback to move on with the existing design.

“There are going to be a lot of people wearing it, so we want to make sure people like it and want to wear it,” Prescott said.

Stuco officer senior Ryan Branch said, “Sales were good the first few days, better than what we expected.”

Senior Will Nadeau said “Hail the chief is a song people sing to the president, I think the supposed problem with these shirts has a lot to do with PC (politically correct) culture and that ideology is to blame. Everyone is offended by everything these days.”

The new shirt will have a much simpler design, as opposed to the original, which was nearly entirely covered on the front face by words. Bishop assured students that those who paid for the original shirt will be credited for the new one.