Posted on 12/01/2018 4:47:11 AM PST by buckalfa
PENDLETON, SC (WSPA) - The death of a high school student in a tragic crash may have sparked a racial divide and caused school threats on social media.
It all started with an idea to honor 17 year old Dillon Padgett who was killed in a crash not far from Pendleton High School on Saturday. That idea ended with threats to bring weapons to the school.
Padgett is best described by his friends as patriotic. So those grieving friends tell 7News they honored him on Monday at the high school by donning confederate flag shirts and taking a group picture with a flag.
"A student's freedom of expression is protected unless there is a substantial threat for disruption," said Superintendent Joanne Avery.
Avery said it's important to note that on that day there was no threat, it wasn't until Tuesday that the situation began to escalate.
"It's demeaning to African American students because of its history," said Erica Gantt who is Pendleton mother of four.
Erica Gantt along with other District 4 parents said the display of this flag has sparked racial tensions inside the school walls.
"My son he's an African American student who's never dealt with this and he's not upset, but more so like why is this going on," Gantt said.
With students taking sides on social media, hateful words turned into violent threats. This creating fear not just in parents, but the students as extra security was put in place on Friday.
"Because it's a situation that has happened in our community before," Gantt said.
The Townville Elementary School shooting in 2016 happening in the same school district as these threats, causes these parent and school administration to take no threat lightly.
But the written rules cannot be changed. Only now after a disruption was caused would students be asked to remove something with a confederate flag, but Avery said they have a plan to move forward.
"We are going to work on a way for students to give them an opportunity to give them a chance for their voices to be heard and ask questions surrounding this situation and understand the facts and more importantly they can be taught the skills to handle conflict," Avery said.
The district reports that the restrictions on the confederate flag at the school will only be until after they are past this situation. As for school safety, they do plan to have some extra officers on hand until these tensions are resolved.
If he was patriotic then shouldn't they have donned U.S. flags?
So the disruptive students, those against the flag, got what they wanted, and the non disruptive students were punished?
That’ll teach them.
“’It’s demeaning to African American students because of its history,’ said Erica Gantt who is Pendleton mother of four.”
Notice she’s an adult. I saw a recent interview with someone who studies the social and pop culture. He said that young people aren’t buying into the “racist” crap as much any more. They just don’t see it in their own lives, with all the inter-racial dating, socializing, marrying, etc. It’s pretty much the older generations that are stirring the pot.
Oh, that would have triggered the trigger-happy even more! In fact, how could you be so insensitive to oppressed peoples who hate America? To them, the U.S. flag is a, er, red flag. Confusingly, they also demand the right to immigrate here illegally.
Functionally speaking, many of the most patriotic Americans today love Confederate flag gear. It's certainly more regional, rather than anti-U.S. A "Resist" rally at Darlington would go poorly, is my guess.
“A student’s freedom of expression is protected unless there is a substantial threat for disruption,” said Superintendent Joanne Avery”
Somebody should explain to Frau Joanne Avery that:
1) No such qualifier exists in the Constitution .
2) People who riot because someone is exercising free speech, a Constitutional Right, should be punished, not the speaker.
Southern whites can trade the Confederate flags for the flags from this country’s war of independence; the history is “cleaner” (in terms of a divided country/secession), and if it makes them feel better, the early flags represent a country where the whole country had slaves (if that is their point/purpose) instead of half of it. Doing this will expose their opponents for what they truly are: Enemies of the country founded by Europeans who hacked it of the wilderness centuries ago.
Young whites today are probably more polarized than they were thirty years ago; they see clearly that their race is used to wage economic war against them, and young people I’ve spoken see very clearly that nobody on “the other side” wants an honest discussion about race - they just want to lecture whites and be paid as compensation for being born another color. Seriously; while young whites are forced to pay lip service to racial harmony BS, they know the real deal. That is why segregation is probably worse today than 30 years ago; “fake news” has been exposed, and with it the low-profile race war.
“’It’s demeaning to African American students because of its history,’ said Erica Gantt who is Pendleton mother of four.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s demeaning to me that you can’t figure out if you are an African or an American.
Were any Norwegian-American students offended???
If the black students knew the deceased and knew he would appreciate being honored with a confederate flag display, then in a normal society, THEY would have dressed up in confederate gear for him.
But we have a society which demands that blacks are brainwashed from birth to adopt a victimhood role, and never to think or act apart from that role.
Not if you understand what ‘country’ versus ‘nation’ means.
My country is louisiana- my nation is the USA. I have no more in common with a Hawaiian than the man on the moon.
SIC SEMPER TYRANNUS
Translation: To hell with your right to free speech if I don't like what you say. Besides. I'm the victim here.
The district reports that the restrictions on the confederate flag at the school will only be until after they are past this situation.
Want to bet?
The district reports that the restrictions on firearms
in the home will only be until after they are past
this situation...
Too many blacks have been conditioned to simply be spectators as the world passes them by; in the past it was a “white” world, and now they are spectators as foreigners come in (imported to replace the disappearing white population) and leave them in the dust.
George Washington would disagree with you. But hey, what did he know?
These people who have picked this nearly healed wound open into a festering sore are despicable, evil individuals who seek personal aggrandizement at the expense of others' suffering. They are truly hateful.
George Washington never included Hawaiians in the larger scheme of things.
Hey Erica Google Henry Brown of Darlington South Carolina.
Nikki Haley outraged.
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