Two students expelled for bringing confederate flag to school

[Texashiker]

Two separate incidents have occurred at the school in which 4 students were expelled.

The incident I would like to discuss is the two students who displayed a Confederate flag and were expelled forever. Parents were notified the students will not be allowed back into school.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/17/confederate-flag-blackface-flaps-lead-catholic-sch/

The boys were accused of bringing the flag to a mid-April school event. Teachers immediately confiscated it, and the students were suspended, NBC reported.

How much do you think the students are going to get for the school suppressing their civil rights?

Or, since this is a private school does the school have to right to restrict freedom of political expression?

Hopefully the ACLU will sue and get the kids a nice payday.

I disagree with what the confederate flag is supposed to stand for. However, being offended is no reason to suppress civil rights.

 

[Wreckem]

Two separate incidents have occurred at the school in which 4 students were expelled.

The incident I would like to discuss is the two students who displayed a Confederate flag and were expelled forever. Parents were notified the students will not be allowed back into school.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/17/confederate-flag-blackface-flaps-lead-catholic-sch/



How much do you think the students are going to get for the school suppressing their civil rights?

Or, since this is a private school does the school have to right to restrict freedom of political expression?

Hopefully the ACLU will sue and get the kids a nice payday.

Kids are going to get zilch.

 

[mrjminer]

Or, since this is a private school does the school have to right to restrict freedom of political expression?

I'm pretty sure this, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Nope.

It's a religious institution,.. and, as per you; they can do whatever they want.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

What are yankees doing with a confederate flag?

 

[fskimospy]

Private school, they can do what they want. Kids will get nothing.

 

[piasabird]

It is a symbol of rebellion and they are teenagers. Rebel is what teenagers do. It is their nature to challenge the status quo.

Rebellion is not the sole property of the south. It occurs everywhere. People mistake the rebel flag for white on black hatred. It is because people are simple uneducated fools. The rebel flag stands for more than the war between the north and the south. That war was about more than slavery. It is about economics and control by the elite. Only the elite were plantation owners.

 

[Jaskalas]

Private schools have rights to be bigots, yeah?

Why would anyone want to patron them after learning of their bigotry?

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I'm pretty sure these ignorant children will have the pay the price for their ignorance.

 

[Meghan54]

Actually, the school probably could do just what happened even if it was a public school.

While the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District Supreme Court decision of 1969 said:
(Remember, the Tinker case revolved around students wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, a far cry from parading a Confederate battle flag today.)

(Students and teachers don't) shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate...

The Court did not, however, grant students an unlimited right to self-expression. It said First Amendment guarantees must be balanced against a school's need to keep order: As long as an act of expression doesn't disrupt classwork or school activities or invade the rights of others, it's acceptable.

Simply put, this ruling means school officials may not silence student expression just because they dislike it. They must reasonably forecast, based on evidence and not on an "undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance," that the student expression would lead to either a substantial disruption of the school environment, or an invasion of the rights of others.

And given today's environment and the chosen expressions of speech....blackface and the Confederate battle flag....I'd be willing to wager any school, public or private, could do just what this school did in the OP's post without any ultimate backlash, as the school would probably rightly claim disruption to the school environment as the Confederate battle flag is nothing more than a left-handed slap to many groups.

 

[fskimospy]

It is a symbol of rebellion and they are teenagers. Rebel is what teenagers do. It is their nature to challenge the status quo.

Rebellion is not the sole property of the south. It occurs everywhere. People mistake the rebel flag for white on black hatred. It is because people are simple uneducated fools. The rebel flag stands for more than the war between the north and the south. That war was about more than slavery. It is about economics and control by the elite. Only the elite were plantation owners.

That was was about more than slavery, of course. It is still an undeniable fact that it was much more about slavery than anything else.

 

[smackababy]

It is a symbol of rebellion and they are teenagers. Rebel is what teenagers do. It is their nature to challenge the status quo.

Rebellion is not the sole property of the south. It occurs everywhere. People mistake the rebel flag for white on black hatred. It is because people are simple uneducated fools. The rebel flag stands for more than the war between the north and the south. That war was about more than slavery. It is about economics and control by the elite. Only the elite were plantation owners.

Except the flag was never any official CSA flag, nor was it even widely used during the Civil War. It became popular for being flown by people to protest desegregation of schools in the 1950s. The flag has also been flown by the KKK and various other groups. Perhaps, you should educate yourself on the flag and it's history.

There is controversy surrounding it, and that is because racists continue to use it as their flag. The kids were trying to be cute and are paying the price for it.


The real issue here is the two girls suspended for making insensitive social network postings outside of school. That is total BS, even if they are morons for dressing in blackface and posting it on the internet.

 

[nehalem256]

Well if schools can ban the American flag I don't see why they can't ban the Confederate flag.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Except the flag was never any official CSA flag, nor was it even widely used during the Civil War. It became popular for being flown by people to protest desegregation of schools in the 1950s. The flag has also been flown by the KKK and various other groups. Perhaps, you should educate yourself on the flag and it's history.

Perhaps you should educate yourself.

http://www.usflag.org/confederate.stars.and.bars.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America

 

[Meghan54]

But I must ask the OP....would you support students parading around in school wearing Nazi symbolism? Full Nazi regalia? Just expressing themselves.....

Do you support the restrictions on the Westboro Baptist Church's protests at funerals? Why? That's just another example of restricting free speech......

 

[MrPickins]

Posting in a "TH is a hypocrite" thread.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

But I must ask the OP....would you support students parading around in school wearing Nazi symbolism? Full Nazi regalia? Just expressing themselves.....

Do you support the restrictions on the Westboro Baptist Church's protests at funerals? Why? That's just another example of restricting free speech......

Free speech baby!!!! Ist amendment!!!Free speech!!!!!

Well as long as I support what's being said..........;-P

 

[smackababy]

Perhaps you should educate yourself.

http://www.usflag.org/confederate.stars.and.bars.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America

Despite never having historically represented the CSA as a country nor officially recognized as one of the national flags, it is commonly referred to as "the Confederate Flag" and has become a widely recognized symbol of the South.

Hmm...

The display of the Confederate flag is a highly controversial topic; it was largely absent during the American Civil War[citation needed] . Rather, the Confederate flag was reintroduced in 1956, just two years after the Supreme Court decision Brown v Board of Education[citation needed]. It was considered by many to be a protest against school desegregation.[31] It was raised at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) during protests against integration of schools.[32]

Yep. I'm totally wrong.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Posting in a "TH is a hypocrite" thread.

This

 

[blankslate]

Well, at least it happened at a private school so we don't have to hear the people who have some frothing hatred of public education going on the cable talking head shows speaking out about this "travesty".


....

 

[piasabird]

Just because some hate groups fly the rebel flag it does not mean it stands for hatred. The tea party folks often fly a couple of flags which stand for freedom. A liberal could try to say those flags stand for hatred. It all depends on who is in power at the time.

 

[piasabird]

A flag is just cloth. It does not hate anyone.

 

[MrPickins]

Just because some hate groups fly the rebel flag it does not mean it stands for hatred.

Not to invoke Godwin, but the swastika demonstrates pretty well why your statement is not accurate.

 

[smackababy]

Not to invoke Godwin, but the swastika demonstrates pretty well why your statement is not accurate.

I believe someone already invoked Godwin's law, but the point is valid. If a symbol (it can be any symbol) is easily associated, by the majority of people (regardless of the intent of the person displaying it or the actual meaning of the symbol) as something that stands for something objectionable, the school has the right to ban said symbol and punish those who 'fly' it.


Again, I think the real issue is the girls being suspended for social media idiocy done outside of school premises and events. I think it is pretty moronic to wear blackface and post racial slurs as tags for the picture, but I don't think doing so in a manner that does not represent the school at all is grounds for their suspension.

 

[z1ggy]

TH is all for kids parading around with confederate flags because it's their "right to free speech" but if they parading around with rainbow flags and glitter... I think we all know how he'd feel.