Most of West Virginia fought for the yankees in the Civil War. The state was created out of Virginia in 1863, during the Civil War. If the kid weren't in government schools he probably would know that and wouldn't be wearing "rebel" anything.
Doesn't mean he doesn't have southern heritage. My family goes back 5 generations in Kentucky, yet my great-great-great-grandfather lived in Tennessee during the first part of the Civil War.
Yep, and it was done unconstitutionally.
U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, clause 1
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
Are you trying to say that an individual who lives in West Virginia in 2005 could not have had an ancestor that fought under the Confederate Battle Flag in 1864?
If the wearing of the Confederate Battle Flag is truly about heritage, then that heritage would be the heritage of his family during the Civil War and not the State he was born in 125 years later.
Chances are that not a single guy that you see wearing kilts and playing bagpipes in the parades or at Police funerals in your State was ever born in Scotland. However, their ancestors were.