Posted on 11/15/2004 5:22:58 PM PST by stainlessbanner
HIGHLAND -- An altercation at Octorara Area High School between a black student and a white student known to wear clothing adorned with images of the Confederate flag has prompted administrators to ban the symbol from school property.
Principal Robert A Lewis Jr. sent a letter to parents earlier this month, informing them of the school's new policy.
The white student is not the only pupil wearing Confederate flag paraphernalia, Lewis said in an interview Thursday, nor does he believe the ban arbitrarily infringes students' rights to freedom of expression.
"Whenever that freedom of expression begins to interfere with the learning process," he said, "or presents a safety hazard -- and in this case I can easily justify it did both of those things -- I have the right to ban it."
Lewis noted the black student who committed the assault, and two other black classmates involved, have been suspended as a result of the incident.
Among Octorara's 860 students, about 35 are black.
Lewis, who is black, is in the midst of his first year as Octorara's principal after working for five years as an administrator in Pittsburgh's public schools.
"This has been an ongoing problem at Octorara, from what I understand," Lewis said.
The principal insisted the school is a "wonderful place with wonderful kids" and the problem stems from a "tiny, tiny minority of students."
Lewis estimated there to be five or six students who are especially brazen with their rebel flag clothing and accessories, and about 20 more who occasionally display the symbol that many people, both black and white, view to be racist.
Those involved most commonly wore T-shirts and belt buckles displaying the Confederate flag, and Lewis talked about at least one student who had a Confederate flag unfurled from the back of his pickup.
"You would have to look far and wide to find schools where this is acceptable," the principal said.
Lewis admitted the flag, which symbolized the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, offends him. Yet, he contended he has put his personal feelings aside in dealing with the issue.
He also believes he was patient before implementing the ban.
Lewis and Octorara Area School District Superintendent Thomas L. Newcome have had multiple discussions about the situation since the principal's arrival, according to Lewis.
Newcome could not be reached for comment.
Lewis said he met with students to discuss his feelings about the symbol -- telling them he found it "personally hurtful."
In his letter to parents, the principal wrote he also plans to create programs within the school that encourage students to talk about race and racial tolerance.
"I had to wait for that opportunity (the fight between the black and white student) to arrive so that when I did ban the flag there would be no controversy," Lewis said, "because if you move too fast and you can't prove that the education process has been disrupted ... you could possibly have (the ban) reversed, which would be a nightmare for all of us involved."
The issue of banning the Confederate flag in public schools has surfaced numerous times in the past three decades -- and not just in states below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Different federal courts around the country have viewed the issue differently, said Paula Knudsen, a staff attorney for the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU always looks at these bans very closely, she said.
"Restrictions on the Confederate flag or other types of political signs, can tend to be over-broad, affecting protected free speech," Knudsen said.
In instances where the courts have upheld the bans, she said, school districts have demonstrated there has been a history of disruption caused by the symbol.
"If the principal is going to come down with this broad policy," Knudsen said, "he needs to be prepared to defend it with specific examples how the Confederate flag has substantially disrupted school activities, and why he thinks it is going to in the future."
At the same time, courts recognize banning such a symbol from a school is different than banning the general public from displaying it. Schools are typically allowed more control, she said.
The courts also consider the racial makeup of the school, Knudsen said.
Chester County -- along with the rest of Pennsylvania and New Jersey -- falls under the jurisdiction of the United States Third Circuit Court.
In 2002, in the case of Sypniewski v. Warren Hills Regional Board of Education in New Jersey, the court ruled the school district could not ban a student from wearing a T-shirt printed with the word "redneck" in a Confederate flag font, even though the court acknowledged there had been prior disruptions at the school involving the Confederate flag.
Knudsen could not comment whether the ACLU was looking into the new policy at Octorara Area High School.
Other schools and districts in Chester County have dress codes that restrict students' clothing -- for instances prohibiting T-shirts with alcohol and cigarette advertisements, drug references and displaying violent or sexual messages and images.
But among the districts contacted by the Daily Local News, none specifically prohibited the Confederate flag.
In the Great Valley High School handbook, "'educationally disruptive' is the key phrase," said Principal John Fidler. "It leaves us some discretion."
Fidler would not say whether he would ban the display of the Confederate flag on students' clothing or cars. Determining the purpose of displaying the flag would be his first priority. "Then we'd make our decision from here," he said.
Nonspecific language also gives administrators at West Chester Area School District's high schools room to determine how to handle specific situations.
West Chester East High School's dress code policy reads: "Attire which is unsafe, unhealthful, disruptive, offensive to generally accepted community standards or obscene is prohibited."
Dress codes at West Chester Henderson High School and in the Downingtown Area School District include similar restrictions.
At Conestoga High School, administrators have gone as far as to ban the "display of messages or images with double meanings, and those that strain interpersonal or inter-group relationships, are prohibited."
David Madden, the principal at Oxford High School, who served as Octorara's principal last year, said the open-ended language in these policies is because there are too many potential symbols to list.
The point is "to maintain an environment that's conducive to ... school concerns, learning," he said.
At Octorara last year, Madden only recalled one incident wear a student wore a T-shirt with a Confederate flag.
"We told him to take it off and he took it off," Madden said, "and that was that."
Lewis, Octorara's current principal, said he is under the impression racial tensions have been brewing for a long time.
"There is some deeply rooted racial animosity that runs both ways."
More than 11 years ago in the Octorara Elementary School, the parents of two black first-graders became incensed when their children were "sold" as part of a skit about slavery.
According to an article that appeared in the Daily Local News on Jan. 21, 1993, a white student led the black students portraying "slaves" to an auction table where they were put on display for the rest of the class. Meanwhile, the teacher described the male student's "strong arms and leg muscles" and the female student as "good for working in the white master's home."
The demonstration was one of a series of events at the school coinciding with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Then district superintendent Timothy Daniels told a reporter the teacher who organized the skit had no malicious objectives.
"Something in (the skit's) delivery was far from its intent," Daniels said. "We don't want to embarrass students."
Prior to the incident, the Octorara Area School District had formed a committee to address racial issues in its schools, in particular at the high school.
The parents of the black students involved in the skit fileddiscrimination suits with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in February 1993. In their complaints, they demanded the teacher be fired.
The commission responded it did not have the authority to order the termination of the teacher, and the case was closed.
During a visit to the school on Thursday, a red sports car in the student parking lot could be seen with a rebel flag license plate mounted to the front bumper, despite the ban.
Students leaving the school said they were aware of their classmates at the center of the Confederate flag controversy, noting who they were as their cars rolled out of the lot.
Nearly everyone said it had been more than 20 or 30 kids who had displayed the rebel flag in school. One female student said as many as 70 percent of the student body did so -- a statement Lewis flatly denied.
Several students added that the fight that inspired the ban was not about the Confederate flag, rather a girl.
"(The ban) has made everyone really mad, that's it," said Gary Crothers, an 11th-grader. "Some people are finding ways around (the ban). Some people are just wearing a small rebel flag pin, some people have tattoos."
More students denied the Confederate flag's racist symbolism.
"It's our heritage. It's not hate," said 11th-grader Charles Powell, a West Virginia native. "I don't see why they are going to make us not be able to wear something that symbolizes our heritage from the South, for the people who are actually from the South."
Powell added that there are some pupils with no southern roots wearing shirts and belt buckles with the symbol.
"I think that's kind of messed up," he said.
Ninth-grader Ryan Miller, is not from the South, although he said he has family living in Florida. An avid skateboarder, he no longer can wear a shirt, produced by one skateboard company, that used the image of the Confederate flag in its design.
"To me it symbolizes the South. It doesn't symbolize slavery or anything racist," Miller said. "It bothers me because I can't wear it, and I just wore it because it had to do with some stuff I liked. Ever since we couldn't wear it just made me mad."
ol dixie bump
I've seen students in high schools and colleges wearing the Palestinian blue/white scarf draped over their shoulders. You ban the Confederate flag, those PLO scarves are fair game as far as I'm concerned.
I have a better idea: how about preaching TOLERANCE to the black student instead of infringing everyone else's freedom of speech?
Can't wait to hear the Left make an excuse for their idiotic conduct.
Wait till 2014 kid, when there are 45 million illegal aliens in our country. Any symbol of American heritage, history, nationalism, sovereignty, etc will be all but banned or eliminated.
Je$$e Jack$on will be arriving on scene in exactly 10, 9, 8, 7, 6...
Who's heritage is more important than the other's? I am sick of the Confederate Flag being called a racist symbol. I am not from the south. If this is a problem for schools. Put the children in nice uniforms, save the parents money on expensive fashonable clothes and solve this problem without bringing up any issue of supposed racism.
Really this pisses me off. What was the end stats on the NAACP boycott on South Caroline? I am curoius if SC lost money or maybe didn't or maybe made more money as a result.
You are not born with the right to not be offended!
Oh, so there were three involved in the assault, not one. Were they arrested for assault?
Man I lived this about 15 years ago. The Spineless principal we had did not suspend the 4 black students that assaulted me. He was afraid that it would not encourage them to excell in school. What a laugh. I bet those fellas are sleeping at the Gray Bar Motel on a regular basis. I can't imagine it now. With PC out of control. It would suck to be a proud white student.
This reminds me a black guy I met who always wore something with the Confederate flag, because he was proud of idea that it conveyed, state independance. He was also a Republican. I think that it would be much better to have an assembly explaining what it really stands for rather than have the school ban it as a "racist" symbol. Besides, anybody who knows their history understands that the Civil was wasn't fought to free the slaves, it was a fight for state rights, and the desire of the Federal Government to keep them in the Union. Public History probably doesn't make this very clear
Because tolerance must only be preached to Whites and especially loudly to those Whites who are unfortunate enough to be straight/male/Christian/conservative. Minorities are under absolutely no obligation to tolerate any of the above. So let's all Celebrate Diversity!! /Extreme sarcasm off
I wonder if he'll also ban the red, green and black flag that represents racial discrimination and 'inciting hatred' by and among some blacks in this country.
Typical liberal tyranny from a government school.
Next it will be State Flags......
Oh, sorry........
There's already an argument going on about that now......
Well, anyway......
Ultimately.........
Will suffer the same fate......
Oops! Sorry again. Burning Old Glory is now okay....
Damn! History is Such a problem to the PC crowd.....
(Doncha know)
I guess the new PC mantra is:
We really do "love it" BUT.....
We have to Burn it........
(Books, Flags, whatever.....for the common good or for the children or whatever)
Then he says THIS?
"I had to wait for that opportunity (the fight between the black and white student) to arrive so that when I did ban the flag there would be no controversy," Lewis said, "because if you move too fast and you can't prove that the education process has been disrupted ... you could possibly have (the ban) reversed, which would be a nightmare for all of us involved."
How do we know he hasn't been primeing some of these minority students to create a situation. Very easy for
him to do.
The statement above gives away his (and their) whole agenda.
Somehow, I don't think this principal would have a problem with the UN flag.
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