No Garden Tools at This School

SNOHOMISH, Wash. (AP) ? "Snoho" has appeared without incident in Snohomish High School (search) yearbooks, on the school district's Web site and in the name of an espresso stand, SnoHo Mojo, but the plural form is another matter.

Justin Patrick, 17, a senior, was suspended briefly in February after arguing after he was told to cover up a T-shirt with "SNOHOS" emblazoned across the chest.

He and four friends wore SNOHOS T-shirts mostly beneath coats in a protest Wednesday.

They said the term is merely a self-reference, short for Snohomish, an Indian word meaning "lowland people" or "sleeping waters," and adopted it as the title of a video they made of themselves doing stunts around town.

School administrators, however, say it's all too easily seen as a derogatory reference to prostitutes.

"There's a real difference between the word 'Snoho' and the word 'Snohos,'" Principal Diana Plumis insisted.

"I can't see our boys' football team wearing a shirt that said 'We are Snohos,' can you?" Plumis said. "It's a pejorative reference to women, and I don't want our name to be used to rank on our girls."

In the previous school year, she said, members of an opposing team at a girls sports game produced a sign saying, "Beat the Snohos," and the principal of the other school called to apologize.

The singular form also got the Snohomish girls' dance team scolded this school year. After they made their own T-shirts saying "Snoho" on the front and "mish" on the back, the coach ordered that they not be worn, the principal said.

Patrick said he and his buddies printed their T-shirts two years ago and wore them occasionally to school without incident until last month.