Flag ban passes (Maryville, TN.)

The Daily Times ^ | 2005-08-12 | Bonny C. Millard

[300magnum]

Just another shining example of our liberal public education system.

[AmericanChef]

-``Any action or speech that might reasonably be considered fighting words or that is likely to cause substantial disruption is also prohibited,'' the policy reads.-

Those choir programs can get a bit rough, can't they?

[billbears]

bump

[eyedigress]

The only way they could get this through was to ban everything, therefore violating everyone's freedom of expression instead of select groups.

Boy, dem dar elitist folks sure are smart! /sarc

[Lucky Dog]

The policy addresses other areas including abusive language, harassment/intimidation and taunting.

While the school board may be able to dictate to students (minors), what about adults attending events? BTW, exactly what constitutes “abusive language” or “harassment/intimidation and taunting?” Such a restriction seems to fit into what has been ruled against as “vague language” by courts across the nation.

“Any action or speech that might reasonably be considered fighting words or that is likely to cause substantial disruption is also prohibited,'' the policy reads.

Isn’t it rather interesting that it is considered free speech, and not liable to “be considered fighting words or that is likely to cause substantial disruption” in this country to burn the national symbol, a flag, but not to wave one at a football game?

I think if anyone has the fortitude and money to take this issue to court, it will fold up like a house of cards. The school board is a government entity and the Supreme Court has ruled that government entities may not breach the Bill of Rights. Last I checked, the First Amendment was in the Bill of Rights.

As an item of interest, my son played football at, and, graduated from, Maryville some years back. Based upon my interaction with the student body while he was there, the smart way for the board to have handled this issue would have been to let the student body vote on it. With some clever campaigning, they probably could have achieved their goal without the uproar or illegality.

[eyedigress]

Here's an added tidbit from the Knoxville News-Sentinel

"In 1999, the school board voted to drop the flag as an official school symbol. The board's 1999 decision also removed from the school cafeteria a mural combining a Confederate flag with the letter "M" and prohibited the school band from playing "Dixie.""

[Lucky Dog]

It is sad that "political correctness" rules the day. "PC" began with an effort (still ongoing) to "capture" the language by "outlawing" certain words like "cripple," "deaf-mute" and "blind," etc., to avoid "hurting someone's feelings." As this case and many others demonstrate, the effort has now spread and is threatening to prove Karl Marx right.

[ohioman]

Sorry. I understand totally. My Damn Yank was directed at my fellow Ohioians on here.

[lionheart 247365]

Big time ping !

[Colonel Kangaroo]

The US flag should not be banned, but the rebel flag has no historical place in Maryville. If Maryville and Blount county schools were doing a good job, more citizens would know that on June 27, 1861, Blount county voted by more than four to one to remain in the Union.

It pains me when I see so many East Tennesseans ignorant of their proud pro-Union Civil War heritage.