Controversy over Korn shirt

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Prior to the release of 1998’s Follow the Leader , Gretchen Plewes, a Zeeland, Michigan high school assistant principal, said in an interview for a Michigan newspaper that Korn’s music is “indecent, vulgar, obscene and intends to be insulting” after giving a student named Eric VanHoven a one-day suspension for wearing a shirt with the Korn logo. FM station WKLQ was filmed giving away hundreds of free Korn T-shirts, donated by the band outside the school. Ottawa County Police were called by the school, but they ended up helping handing out shirts. Korn filed a cease and desist order against Plewes and the school district for their comments. They also threatened a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, but dropped both actions due to the band members’ personal lives. The period from 1993 to 1997 was embodied by wearing apparel that featured the Adidas clothing brand.