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
bump for later
Heh. Let me know when you get your act back together, then. I've got a wad of Dixie dollars I'd like to redeem at face value.
Did Ike also knowingly allow his soldiers to rape German women, the way Sherman turned a blind eye to that? Did Ike order his soldiers to burn conquered German towns to the ground, regardless of their military value?
I understand the concept of "Total War"...but if Sherman had kept the citizenry out of it, I wouldn't be calling him 'terrorist'.
All he had to do (and did) was smash the remnants of the Confederacy stationed in GA as he Marched to the Sea. The burning of ATL and Columbia, SC did nothing to hasten the conclusion of the War Between the States.
Good post, Carey!
I don't need to review some humanities thesis. Just ask a few blacks if they want to be slaves. I think their answer would be the same as yours.
I have to agree with you. There was also the fact that the North didn't have plantations, they had factories. And they wanted workers for those factories.
All the better reason to free the slaves.
If they did, Juan Seguin, and all the Tejanos that died at Golid, Gonzales, and the Alamo, would come back from the grave and beat the snot out of 'em. :)
Whenever I hear that it always makes me laugh!
They also shouldn't have named Army posts after Confederates. Ft. Lee, Ft. Hood, Ft. Bragg, to name just a few.
Imagine their surprise when they went to work in industrial America making hot dogs...one man's hell is another's heaven...
There's a school system just south of Austin,TX in Hayes county that, I believe, still uses the Confederate flag as their school colors. ( the Rebels ) I think there was a school in Austin that use to have the Rebel flag but, was pressured into changeing. Maybe some Austin FReepers can help me out?
"The confederate flag has nothing to do with Heritage."
That's right, a flag that people's ancestors fought under, which they revere for that reason, they had nothing to do with heritage. Just as our city taking the Battle Flag out of the city seal and replacing it with the 3rd National Flag (which still had the battle flag in it) was somehow not motivated out of respect for history.
Do tell?
That's right. Since the Confederacy was defeated, erase all reminder of it. We don't have Hitler High, do we?
Robert E. Lee in San Antonio was forced to removed the flag around 1990. The colors are still red and gray.
I have read extended excerpts, then gone to the original sources to read quotations in context. Based on this, I see no need to subject myself to readind his entire book. Let us say that his objectivity as a historian leaves much to be desired.
You're wasting your time trying to convince these guys that the Confederate flag is anything other than a symbol of all the was once good about America.
Ask them this: Would it be OK for my daughter to go to this same school wearing a shirt that says:
"My great-granfather was a Confederate, thus I am a descendent an American traitor; no different than my hero John Kerry."
I rarely agree with you on these issues, but this principal is a douchbag. Does she do the same thing with black folks who wear the black, white and green Black Power colors?
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