The Nation - News from Aug. 23, 1988

A street-preaching 11-year-old was suspended for 10 days on the first day of school in Marion, N.C., after reportedly telling his principal to “go to hell.” David Strode, said his son, Duffey, had told Jim Gorst, principal of Eastfield Elementary School, “you’ll go to hell.” School officials said the boy’s message was a more blunt “you go to hell.” Before classes opened, school officials said they would not permit classes to be disrupted as they were last year when Duffey staked out a back entrance of the school and yelled out Bible verses. Duffey, who was to enter sixth grade, was suspended five times last spring.