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A Florida Boy Was Bullied for His University of Tennessee T-Shirt Design. Now It’s Team Merchandise.

Tim Gangloff/Cal Sport Media, via Alamy

In a state where the Gators, Noles and Canes vie for college football supremacy, an elementary school student in Florida recently showed up to class in a homemade T-shirt design bearing his allegiances to the University of Tennessee — and he was teased because of it.

Now, the boy’s hand-drawn U.T. design can be worn by fellow Volunteer fans clad in orange.

When the university learned of the bullying episode, which was shared by the boy’s teacher, Laura Snyder, in a viral Facebook post, it began offering replicas of the T-shirt for sale at U.