Ashley Thomas said she is proud of her Southern heritage.
Posted on 01/06/2006 12:05:39 PM PST by stainlessbanner
BURLESON — Two North Texas high school students who were kicked out of class for displaying rebel flags vow to take their fight to court. They said they are proud of their heritage, but Burleson High School education officials maintain the Confederate symbol is offensive.
Ashley Thomas remembered how it all started. "Principal comes up and says, 'You've got to get rid of your purse... it's racist."
Ashley and Aubrie McAllum both received purses patterened after the Confederate battle flag from their parents for Christmas. Both girls decided to take their presents to school.
"I don't have 'KKK' written on me or anything; it's just a purse," Aubrie said. "Doesn't have anything to do with what color you are."
The students were asked to leave their purses with the principal; they elected to leave school after calling their parents.
Ashley was sent home three times this week. "I'm at the point where I really don't know what to do," she said. "I want to keep going to school and get my education, but this is my life. I was born and raised in the South. Why is the flag so bad?"
Here's the answer, from Burleson ISD spokesman Richard Crummel: "It's a violation of the dress code," he said. "We don't want students to wear anything that might cause a disruption, and that symbol has done that in the past."
"Then that's a heritage violation on her, on me... on all of us," said Aubrie's father, Rick McAllum. "So we can push it."
McAllum belongs to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Ashley's mom, Joni Thomas, is from New York. But the parents of both girls praised their daughters, and vowed to fight.
"I'm hiring a lawyer," Thomas said. "I'm going all the way with it, because I think it's wrong."
Burleson High School, with a 2,200 student enrollment, is about 90 percent white, 8 or 9 percent Hispanic. There are very few African Americans.
"We want to be sensitive to everyone; make it comfortable in school for all our students," Crummel said.
Both girls said they have never been in trouble and don't want trouble now.
But they don't want to back down, either.
School officials know controversy often follows the Confederate flag, and they will not let it in.
The girls as of Friday, decided to go back to school
Ashley Thomas said she is proud of her Southern heritage.
Dixie Ping 2006!
How is the Confederate flag anymore offensive than the Gay Pride flag symbol of sodomy? I'm a yankee, too.
Have the 8 or 9 percent Hispanic students complained about the racism of the Texas flag that flys in front of the school?
You go girl, don't let bigots erase your heritage.
Typical of the public schools these days.
No complaints from students, faculty, etc.
They let the controversy in when they decided to make a big deal out of the girls' purses.
As Jeff Foxworthy would say, 'she might be a redneck!'
I think Burleson High School education officials are offensive. Good for them for fighting the idiots.
BUMP!
Oh for pete's sake. Then they would have an issue with my Confederate lapel pin, too. And this is in Texas? What a shame.
It's not suprising, is it? I went to Robert E. Lee High School and they finally made the symbols vanish. First, the Mad Rebel, then the Confederate flag.
If that's the way they felt about it, then they should have made a national ruling that none of the confederate presidents or generals names should be on any of the schools. Lee is no more and no less a symbol of the Confederacy than the flag. And Lincoln actually did the Blacks no favor when he 'freed' them so they could work in the northern industrial explosion! [early Liberal spin.]
Maybe the school officials are just mad because my Richland Rebels kicked their butts in football (as did every other team in the district) for something like 15 years in a row back in the late 70's through the mid 90's.
I went to college with a kid from somewhere in South Texas, I mean Deep South Texas, and basically, he said that alot of the Tejanos who are 2nd and 3rd generation, they're basically South Texas rednecks. Rebel flags and all.
Or how the students with Commanche or Kiowa roots feel about the Texas and American flags outside the school. Jeez.
Stupid school official.
I want one of those purses!
There was an elementary school in Longwood, FL that changed their mascot name not long ago.
Seems the original mascot was 'MinuteMen'. Then they got a new principal who decided that 'MinuteMen' was sexist so she renamed them the Badgers or some sort of godawful PC name.
Well Ashley you can only be proud of your heritage if you hate America, and promise to bring the worst of some culture
to America. Like say Mexico. If you're American born and proud of America you're screwed, at least for now.
Oh great, did you need to introduce the civil war on FR on a friday afternoon?
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