Posted on 02/03/2006 4:55:22 PM PST by paltz
Two Hickman High School students disrupted a multicultural assembly yesterday in the school’s auditorium by unfurling a Confederate flag from the balcony.
Ryan Lanman, 17, who is white, and a friend enacted their plan while another student was singing "The Yellow Rose of Texas" to commemorate the Spanish-American War and honor Texas.
After the disruption, the students involved were told to leave, and the assembly continued, Principal Mike Jeffers said, adding that he couldn’t talk about whether the students would be disciplined.
Lanman, reached by phone after the assembly yesterday afternoon, said he and fellow student Kevin Meyers meant to "show Southern pride" and didn’t intend the flag to be racist.
"Me and Kevin, we don’t believe in slavery or anything else that goes along with the symbol," Lanman said.
The assembly included celebrations of Irish, Spanish, Bosnian, Indian, Middle Eastern, black, American, Japanese and Chinese cultures, among others, Jeffers said.
Lanman said he and his friend waited until "The Yellow Rose of Texas" to unfurl the flag out of respect for the other cultures being celebrated at the assembly.
Jeffers said he questions Lanman’s argument that his actions were about cultural support for the South.
"Ryan’s interpretation of things well, there’s information I can’t share with you," Jeffers said. "Ryan is not telling you the whole story."
Collin Kemble, 16, who is white, said he is sure the unfurling of the flag was intended as a racist action. He and a group of football players sitting outside Hickman yesterday discussed what Lanman and his friend did.
None of the students said he believes there will be any retaliation against Lanman or anyone else.
"No, there ain’t going to be no riot," Vaughan said.
One thing that bothered those in the group was something they saw as a double standard. "Students wear Confederate stuff all the time," said Michael Tufts, 16, a sophomore. The school "doesn’t do anything about it."
"If I came to school in a ‘I hate crackers’ T-shirt, I’d be sent home," said Xavier Bagby, 16, who is black.
Jeffers said Confederate flag clothes are not prohibited unless they cause disruptions, adding that Lanman’s use of the flag did cause a disruption.
"It’s one thing to wear something and another to stand up in a multicultural assembly with a Confederate flag," Jeffers said. "You don’t have the right to run into a movie theater and yell, ‘Fire,’ and you don’t have the right to do something disruptive in school."
Jeffers said school officials planned to meet with students’ parents today or Monday.
"I think if you see kids this age who are racist, you have to look at their parents," said Evan Conrad, 14, a white student at West Junior High School. "They’re not going to just develop racism. They learn it from somewhere."
Tom Lanman, Ryan Lanman’s father, said he disagrees with his son’s behavior and actions.
"However, a lot of students have grumbled about how the multicultural assemblies don’t represent" the Southern point of view, said Tom Lanman, adding that nobody in his family is a racist. "Ryan is a student that steps up to the plate and makes a statement. He’s a leader in that sense."
Note the careful wording! From it we can conclude for certain that the friend was not white--but the report tries to give the impression that it was a pair of white-supremacists. No bias here....
BTTT for later.
It appears Xavier does not understand what real equivalence is. If any student wore a shirt which said "I hate N-----" that student would probably be jailed.
I do have a problem with this. It is kids like this who perpetuate the myth that Rebel Flag stands for racism. Lee and Jackson would be rolling over in their graves if they knew how the Flag was being exploited. This was inappropriate any way you look at it, and I strongly support the right for a state or individual to display the Rebel Flag.
If the school had regular classes going on instead of this waste of time, insult to your intelligence, "multicultural" bull sh**, then this incident wouldn't have happened in the first place.
Here's a thought: Quit wasting taxpayer dollars and conducting thought control on public school students by having multi-cultural assemblies! Get back to class and teach some math and science instead!
That's another sour old lemon. Ollie Wendell was one smart fella, but he was dead wrong on that one. There's no such limitation on the right of free speech. The real problem with shouting "fire" in a movie theater is that the theater is private property. When you buy a ticket and enter, you're making an implicit contract not to disrupt the show, and you're in breach of that contract if you shout "fire". It's all about private property rights.
(Due credit to Walter Block and "Defending the Undefendable")
Bite yer tongue!
Racist? These kids were definitely running "multi-culti" into the ground, but the adults in charge of that school should have realized what an open invitation can lead to.
I'm not defending the kids. I'm just noticing that race is specified for just about every player in this drama--except for the accomplice, Kevin Meyers. Which leads me to believe that he is almost certainly non-white. Probably black, because if he were, say, Asian, they'd probably have said so.
You want funny? Lots of folks in Maryland do consider themselves southern!
Yah, I agree with you. I know what you meant, and you are probably right. My only point is, things like this give people more ammunition to banish the Rebel Flag from all public places, and have helped turn it into a racist symbols to many. And this is coming from somebody who strongly supports not only the indivudual's right to wear the Flag, but also the state's right to display it.
lol, same goes for Central PA and Delaware. They may have a better claim to being "Southern" in Central PA than in many "Southern" states, however.
BTW., I am not at all bashing PA. I love the state. Especially Central PA.
The Pittsburgh accent actually sounds (very slightly) southern. The locallest local girls sound almost like southern belles. It's pretty cute.
"The locallest local girls sound almost like southern belles."
Lol, that is true. I notice that alot in Berks and Lancaster Counties.
"The Pittsburgh accent actually sounds (very slightly) southern."
I've always considered PA to be a midwestern state, whether it technically is or not. Maybe that is the accent I notice in the state.
Wow, that is the most insensitive thing I've ever read. That Principal should be forced to attend sensitivity training so that he learns to respect his fellow man's differences.
I don't see from the article how you arrive at this conclusion. I'm from the north but now reside in Houston Texas. My family is from Southern Indiana and I had relatives that fought on both sides of that war. I have no problem with the Southern rationality of states rights as the primary motivating factor for the Civil War. Slavery was an abomination but was already doomed by the Industrial Revolution. These kids have as much right to celebrate their own heritage as any one else. My guess is that if they had asked to display this proud symbol of the South, they would have been laughed out of the principals office.
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