The girls’ varsity tennis team was recently told they may no longer wear their team shirts at school, after an unattributed complaint regarding the innuendo displayed on their shirts at the Back-to-School Fall Rally.

The phrase “I’d hit that” was printed on the front of the shirt above the team’s “Redwood Varsity Tennis” logo.

Athletic Director Jessica Peisch notified the girls’ coach, Marlies Zeisler, about the administrative decision on Sept. 26 via email. Assistant Principal Liz Chacón initially alerted Peisch about the unattributed complaint that the administration had received.

After Peisch was alerted, she proceeded to email the coaches of the team in order to confirm that the complaint was warranted.

On Sept. 26, the players on the team received an email from Zeisler explaining the ban of the shirts.  According to Chacón, the shirts break school dress code.

Board Policy 5132 states: “Clothing and jewelry shall be free of writing, pictures, or any other insignia which are obscene, libelous or slanderous, vulgar [or] profane…”

According to junior Alison Slivon, the shirt idea originated from a similar shirt that most girls on the team liked.

“The idea came from a Nike shirt that said ‘I’d hit that’ that our team captain, Sophia Hooper, had. We decided to customize it into a game day accessory where it said ‘Redwood Varsity Tennis’ underneath the ‘I’d hit that,’” Slivon said.

According to Hooper, senior, the team made two collective decisions to wear the shirts at the rally.

“[The jerseys] were supposed to be our game day shirts, like how volleyball and football wear their uniforms the day of their games,” Hooper said. “And since no one really wanted to wear a tennis shirt to school, we wore them to get all the girls excited for our match against Tam later that day.”