Posted on 06/04/2008 1:32:11 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Three seniors at Bloomington Kennedy High School will not be allowed to walk in their graduation ceremony after driving to school with confederate flags flying from their trucks.
Seventy-five other students showed up at the school Wednesday morning to protest the action taken by the school against Justin Thompson, Joey Snyder and another student.
"I figured, you know, were seniors, its the last day of school we didnt mean any offense by it," Thompson said.
Added Snyder: "We didnt look at it as racist or anything."
But school officials feel that flying a confederate flag violates the schools student conduct policy. The students have been suspended from all school-sponsored activities.
"We are responsible for the 2,000-plus students that attend this school," said Rick Kaufman, of Bloomington Public Schools. "The very nature of what they did had the potential to create a very serious situation."
Students disagreed.
"They werent trying to hurt anybody, they just had it on their cars. Its just freedom of speech" said Landin Lind, one of 75 students who chanted Let Them Walk at the school Wednesday morning.
"I feel it was a racist move, but I feel that they were just kidding around," added student James Granberry, who supports the students. "I didnt really take offense to it."
School officials added that theyve dealt with some racism issues at the school recently, which is why they are taking the incident so seriously.
All three students will still receive their diplomas.
One begins to wonder what the response would have been had they flown “Gay Pride” flags, or perhaps “Black Power” flags, or considering it took place in Minnesota, A USSR flag?
Does their horn blow Dixie?
Wait until the schools are filled with these guys:
If they drove to school with a flag of Mexico? Or one of Iran? Or one of Serbia? I thought we were now TOLERANT people.
It’s only offensive to those that choose to be offended.
I wonder what descendents of soldiers from the Iron Brigade would think of this. :)
The flag is a symbol my great grandfather fought under and in defense of. I am for flying it anywhere anybody wants to fly it. I do know perfectly well what pain it causes my black friends, but I think that pain is not necessary if they would read the confederate constitution and knew what the confederacy really stood for. This country has two grievous sins on its hands.
One of them is slavery - whether we'll ever be cured of it, I don't know. The other one is emancipation - they told 4 million people, you're free, hit the road, and they drifted back into a form of peonage that in some ways is worse than slavery. These things have got to be understood before they're condemned. They're condemned on the face of it because they take that flag to represent what those yahoos represent as - in their protest against civil rights things.
But the people who knew what that flag really stood for should have stopped those yahoos from using it as a symbol of what they stood for. But we didn't - and now you had this problem of the confederate flag being identified as sort of a roughneck thing, which it is not.
My synopsis : why should historical fact get in the way of the schools feeeeeeeeeeling?
Flying flags from their OWN cars? Exactly where does the authority of the school officials (elected by us to serve us) end? Sure, gay flags or transgender flags, Muslim flags — those would have been fine. Makes me want to get a Confederate flag for my front trellis, just for a taste of freedom. before it’s gone for good.
Hmmm, so according to the libs the burning of Old Glory is protected speech, but mere display of the Confederate Battle flag is an actionable offense. What nonsense. A decent Constitutional lawyer could make the school district’s decision very expensive.
I have a nice Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. I bought it in 1975 in New Orleans from a Black guy who owned the company that made it.
... you left out Mexican flags.....
This is Minnesota; We were never a confederate state. The kid should be flying the American flag or nothing at all.
That said, this is a CLEAR violation of his freedom of speech, and I hope he sues the school.
A standing ovation?
I didn't know that Minne-freakin'-sota had a Southern heritage to remember? Or are they from southern Bloomington?
A Confederate Flag in Minnesota though?
So what was it being used as a symbol for in this case?
Maybe they should have just burned the confederate flag? That way nobody would have gotten into trouble.
A lot of difference in Minnesota and say Georgia. If they had the same attitude Minnesota does towards the confederate battle flag, they’d have to lock up 90% of the state of Georgia. You see it flying everywhere in Georgia...and South Carolina, and Alabama, and even Florida which is heavily infiltrated with northern sentiment.
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