Racial tensions flare at N.C. high school

The Herald Sun ^ | 10/9/2003 | AP

[mtbrandon49]

Racial tensions flare at N.C. high school

ROXBORO, N.C. -- Students at a Person County high school were suspended for violating a new ban on clothing with Confederate flags or symbols, a school official said.

The school announced the ban Monday after several incidents that included at least one fight between a white student and a black student, said Person High Principal Greg Hicks.

Assistant Principal Margaret Bradsher said four or five students were suspended Wednesday for violating the ban.

Hicks, who replaced longtime Principal Larry Oakley, who retired last year, said students were allowed to wear Confederate symbols in the past without incident.

However, Person High began to see problems this year, including racial slurs directed at black students, he said.

Five or six students were suspended Tuesday, all sent home for one day. The only exception was one student who was suspended for three days, Hicks said.

Tenth-grader Roger Moore said he was suspended for three days for wearing a shirt with the Confederate flag on the front and back. He sports two flags on his notebook as well, he said.

Moore said he was first drawn to the flag because it graced the top of the General Lee, the famous orange car in the "Dukes of Hazzard" TV show.

"The flag is a symbol of less government, less taxes and people governing themselves," he said. "It's not a racist flag."

Moore said school officials have peeled Confederate flags off students' car windows and towed at least one truck from the school parking lot because it boasted a Confederate flag.

Person High, which has about 1,700 students, is the county's only high school. Its enrollment is about 70 percent white and 30 percent black, with other minorities comprising about 1 percent, officials have said.

[mtbrandon49]

The Nanny State Continued.....................

[Support Free Republic]

Hi mom!

[Adder]

"including racial slurs directed at black students, he said."

And I'm sure the black students were just skulking along in the hallways desparate to escape the notice of the eeee-vil whites as they valiantly tried to pursue an education, a chance, a way out of the hellhole that was their life in Roxboro.

Pu-leeze. I'd like to have heard the raacial slurs of the black kids. It takes two to fight.
If one of those self-righteous idiots towed my son's car from campus, he would have a lawsuit slapped on him quicker than he could issue a memo. The nerve of these people! I hope the kids respond by continuing to defy these bas tards. And that their parents continue to back them up.
The issue is not the flag. The issue is an over-reaching power grab.

[mtbrandon49]

Well Put!

[laredo44]

"The flag is a symbol of less government, less taxes and people governing themselves," he said. "It's not a racist flag."

Yes, but it is also the banner under those who proposed to continue slavery marched.

[mtbrandon49]

Public School Education at it's finest.

[IrishBrigade]

For that matter, so was the Stars and Stripes, if you consider that slavery was perfectly legal when that was the only national banner prior to the war...prior to the formation of the Republican party that sought to abolish slavery. And FYI...it was a battle standard, nothing more, nothing less. It represented valor and a sense of community to those who marched under it, not some seething desire to see others continue on in bondage...and don't forget it was just one of many Confederate standards; are we to expunge the vestiges of them as well? Why not just pretend the war never happened? That way we don't have to be bothered with such unpleasantness...

[LooneyTick]

Nobody seems to care that the blacks also fought for the South under that banner in the War of Nothern Aggression.

[gunnedah]

This up coming generation is going to reap what has been sewn.The white person has been portrayed as evil in this country since the early sixties. We have been made into villans and put down over things we did not do and had no control over. It is no more or less than stereo typing.I nor my grandparents did not own or have slaves and if the truth be known we may have come from slaves.I realize that wealthy whites owned slaves and I abhor this and have no doubt it was evil but saying that I dont owe anyone or anybody because of it and I cant help what someone else did. This thing has been shown only through one perspective and only parts of the truth.
Every crime committed by a white on black has been strewn all over every newspaper in this country and when the roles are reversed it is covered up.It is a fact that black on white crime runs eight to sixteen times higher than the reverse. The truth can only prevail when everything is exposed.
I stumbled across the Dr. Phil Show yesterday and it portrayed whites as not wanting to mix with blacks. It showed only one side and it was portrayed as whites being the only ones against this even though one young lady who was of a mixed marriage said her dad who was black
hated whites. To me this indicated if that were the case why did he impregnate a white?Think about it.
Also every race has those in it and in great numbers that believe this but for some reason our media hand picks whites only.
Diversity may work, I have no idea. But over thousands of years if you look at wars and even the fighting going on today it boils down to being over beliefs that come from ones race or religion.
It is strange that in America everyone is allowed to display and carry on about their heritage. That is everyone but those of us who are white!

[mtbrandon49]

"not some seething desire to see others continue on in bondage"

We have the public skool sytem to thank for this. Anything said contrary to what they say, they want stamped out. 258,000 southern men died and it wasn't because they wanted to keep slavery since only a small percentage even had slaves.

[mtbrandon49]

"I stumbled across the Dr. Phil Show yesterday and it portrayed whites as not wanting to mix with blacks."

I'm no head doctor but people have a comfort area. I feel more comfortable around people whom I have stuff in common with. I hang around those people and will hang around the ones I don't feel comfortable with, if forced.

My wife teaches in a charter school in Roxboro. Since there is already a public school in that district, they give top priority to the ones who live in that district but do not want to attend public school. Then they take applications for the rest of there student population. They can have only 356 students enrolled. They have a spring fundraiser every year and at the fundraiser the principle pulls applications from a box, randomly, to fill the remaining spots. The article states that the county population makeup is 70% white and 30% black. Knowing that population breakdown there are only five black kids in the whole school. This just proves that you can make people associate together but if the people are given a choice they are going to hang around with people they are comfortable with.

[sticker]

If a black kid wears a malcom x or a new african republic shirt, does the school demand that they remove it or is that just a sign of ethnic pride?

[gunnedah]

It has always been that way and regardless of what the government does it will not change. Seems to me the government is trying to get into the business of cloning.

[mtbrandon49]

He can wear that stuff he's not evil whitey.

[clyde asbury]

Public School Education at it's finest.

Check your punctuation.

[mtbrandon49]

I'm a surveyor not a english major.

[ought-six]

"It is strange that in America everyone is allowed to display and carry on about their heritage. That is everyone but those of us who are white!"

Ah, yes, diversity in action. G-ddamn them and G-ddamn their political correctness and their bondage to multiculturalism.

[TaxRelief]

Bet they don't ban the Kwanzaa flag

Lest anyone forget the seven principles of Kwanzaa, here they are:

Umoja (Unity)
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith)
To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.