15 students suspended over Confederate flag T-shirts

al.com ^ | 10/16/01 | ap

[shuckmaster]

MOULTON, Ala. (AP) -- Fifteen students at Lawrence County High School got suspended for wearing Confederate flag T-shirts to school Monday.

Principal Ricky Nichols said he suspended the students for three days each because they defied a ban he placed on rebel flag clothing on Friday.

"School is not an open forum," the principal said. "It is a place for learning."

Seven of the students and two parents protested later Monday at the Lawrence County Board of Education's parking lot.

The suspended students all wore T-shirts by Dixie Outfitters. The shirts have emblems on the front and back that contain the Confederate battle flag. The students said the shirts aren't meant as a racial statement.

"In Lawrence County, it's almost like a fashion statement, the same way people wear Tommy Hilfiger," senior Casey Hughes said.

Some students said they wear the shirts as an expression of Southern heritage, but the principal said none of the students could tell him if their great-grandfathers fought in the Civil War.

[Squire]

Definitely. One of my Yankee friends once admitted that if the Confederacy had won, it would have been a pro-life nation.

[Non-Sequitur]

bump

[Twodees]

Yeah, that sounds about right, coming from somebody who has a long quote from Martin Luther King Jr. on his profile page. Which other communists do you admire?

I thought this was a conservative forum, not a utopian socialist forum.

[Twodees]

Big fan of ZNet, are you?

[Twodees]

At every other time when our country has been at war since 1865, Southerners have taken the ANV battleflag to war with them while they fought for the US. My uncles did it in WWII and Korea, my cousins who were old enough for Vietnam did too.

Right now, young Southerners are getting their battleflag tattoos in anticipation of serving in this war. It's a Southern tradition. It's the personal battleflag we take with us. Are you going to support the politically correct politicians in the "new army" that Clinton set up when they want to exclude our boys from service?

Now, that would be divisive.

[Twodees]

Fellow Southron, go back to the article, strip the header down to the home address, visit the homepage and see where the article is posted. It's at ZNet, a communist website for the infamous ZMag. Britt is in good company there with the other writers like Noam Chomsky and Barbara Kingsolver.

[Landru]

This merits a lawsuit & that's all there is to it.

Where's the ACLU; someone find 'em & quick tell there's severe civil rights violations going on here.

~yea.

[HELLRAISER II]

Your comparing wearing a T-shirt to refusing to say the Pledge of Allegience, man get a grip. I bet if you asked every one of those kids to say the Pledge, none of them would hesitate. Then ask the whole class to recite it & see which ones refused, I bet I could give you preview of the ones who would refuse and their not the ones wearing the Rebel flag t-shirts.

[Teacher317]

I think that as a generalization, you're correct. At my school (grades 7-12), it is common to see about 2-3% of the student body wearing the Confederate flag on any given day, and about 5% of the cars in the parking lot also sport stickers or license plates with one as well. (The school is about 5% black.) We recite the pledge every morning, at all grade levels, and the participation is very close to 100%... BUT... the one young lady in my class who does not recite the pledge (she does stand) is the same girl who made a Confederate Flag poster for her art project (she brought it in my class yesterday)... so there's at least ONE counter-example out there. =^/

[Landru]

"...strip the header down to the home address, visit the homepage and see where the article is posted. It's at ZNet, a communist website for the infamous ZMag.""

Nice bit of work exposing these clymers for what they really are."

[shuckmaster]

Following Twodees' advice, I backstripped the link you provided & found a website on communist, liberal, & anti-American activism. What exactly is your agenda here anyway? You've been exposed!

[Twodees]

Your servant, sir.

Edd

[Landru]

Say there, Twodees?
I see you're realtively new to the forum?
A refugee from the *other site*, maybe?
Victim of the latest iteration of the old battle axe's cultural purges, are ya?

Well hey, whatever you're reason; a BIGwelcome to you, d².
Better late than never with a greeting, I *always* like to say. {g}

[Twodees]

No, I've never been to the other site. Both the Goldbergs make me want to puke. I've been rattling around in internet BBS's since '95 and surfed in here to read articles once in awhile for a year or so before joining in.

Thanks for the welcome.

[Verax]

Bump!

[goodieD]

Thank you for proclaiming the truth! Let us also not forget to remind the ignorant that Lincoln had no intention of freeing the slaves, until England freed theirs and told Lincoln, we'll stop helping the south and start helping the north, but only if you follow suit.

[the_rightside]

neo-Confederate is a term that is being used more and more by Civil War authors and those who write on related subject.click here.

Fallowing your line of reasoning of association, if the person who coined the term "neo-Confederate" is gay therefore anyone who uses it is gay? If that is the case, the Confederate flag, associated with KKK hate groups and slavery is a symbol of hate ?

[Arkinsaw]

Actually, the point was not that the coiner of the term was gay, but that his taking up the fight against the Confederate flag had a motivation other than logic. Plus the fact that his scholarship on the subject was more emotional than logical based on his incessant conspiracy theorizing (and bizarre conspiracy theorizing I might add). This person is someone that journalists have gone to as an "expert" source. Very sloppy journalism because this guy is no James McPherson.

I don't expect, or ask, opponents to love the Confederate flag. I don't consider them as slime because they don't love the Confederate flag. All I ask is that the meaning it has for me, which has nothing to do with hate and a lot to do with family, be tolerated.

The opponents to the flag are unwilling to accept even this minimum and insist that anyone that has any respect for the flag is a hater and racist. That's intolerance and its also stereotyping.

The article you posted was interesting. I would like to point out that he mentions that most blacks are opposed to the flag. This is not the case as polls, depending how they are worded, show some level of ambivalence. As a Confederate reenactor we often have African-Americans attend our events and their questions and attitudes are indistingishable from those of caucasians. A couple of years ago we buried a Texas soldier whose bones were found in the woods. We had 5 African-American men who walked-in and were very respectful. We had several who attended an N.B. Forrest Memorial service and were respectful and treated respectfully.

This is not that complicated an issue. When you see someone with a Confederate flag yelling, wearing white hoods, or generally behaving evilly chances are they are racists and white supremacists. If the flag is on a soldiers memorial its there as a memorial to soldiers. If you see someone with a Confederate flag sticker on their car they are most likely just indicating a healthy dose of generalized rebellion against authority with no historical or racist conotations.

The flag has absolutely no meaning without context. Its meaning is determined by the minds of those displaying it. Offensiveness is established by the one carrying the flag, not the one viewing it.

I haven't commented much on the Confederate flag lately because I am more concerned with the American flag at the moment. But I have noticed that those people who have squirmed against the patriotic displays of the US flag following Sept. 11 are the same people who spit at me for display of the Confederate flag. The same rules designed to ban the Confederate flag from public places originally have been used to prevent display of the US flag at those same places (the business in Florida for example).

[babaloo999]

very good point, although I've always referred to the Confederate flag as 'the redneck flag'. But I'm not from the South, I'm from Texas.

[babaloo999]

That's Texas, USA