Southern heritage symbols under attack again
We read:
"A former Anderson County High School student has sued the school district and its leadership for suspending him for wearing Confederate battle flag apparel to school and refusing to remove or obscure it. The case is expected to go to the jury this afternoon.
Tom Defoe's complaint in federal court indicates he was suspended for wearing a Confederate flag T-shirt to school in late October 2006. The principal informed Confederate flag apparel was banned at Anderson County High School and asked him to turn it inside out or take it off. The complaint says Defoe "politely refused to comply" and was suspended from school.
A week later, Defoe wore a Confederate belt buckle to school. The assistant principal of the vocational school told him it violated school policy and asked him to cover or remove the belt buckle. The complaint indicates Defoe "politely refused to remove or cover the buckle" and was again suspended.
On the stand Tuesday, Defoe said the school suspended him at least a dozen times for refusing to take off confederate flag t-shirts or turn them inside out. "It's my heritage," he testified. "I'm proud to be a Southerner."
Defoe's complaint claims the Confederate flag apparel at no time disrupted the learning environment and that other students are allowed to wear expressions of political or controversial viewpoints. As a result, Defoe says the policy against the Confederate flag violated his First Amendment rights.
It asks for the court to declare the schools' policy unconstitutional, for any disciplinary action related to these incidents to be removed from Defoe's record, and for a permanent injunction against the schools' policy.
Source
6 comments:
Gonna have to side with the kid on this one. Either you ban ALL political, religious, and cultural "messages" - not just "disruptive" ones - or you allow them. You can't just restrict speech you disagree with....even if you are a school.
Well said. In an attempt to pander to a few activists, the school is willing to void this kid's rights. Of course, if he was wearing a Che Guarvara T-shirt, Marxist red flag, or a black power symbol, not a word would've been said.
Lest we forget the tens-of-thousands of brave Americans who died fighting for that flag. That they happened to lose doesn't mean they or their flag are not deserving of honor and respect!
And the most damning fact of all is that the Union invaded the Confederacy in a war of agression after the Confederate states made use of their legal right to leave the Union to become independent nations.
It's also forgotten that slavery in the US was not abandoned until after the civil war, that slaves in the Confederacy fought side by side with their owners (and voluntarilly, being granted their freedom as well as pay as a reward) against the Union forces, when the Union didn't allow blacks to be more than menial labour and ship's cooks until the middle of WW2, considering them too unreliable and too stupid to do any more demanding jobs.
And they're not?
And the most damning fact of all is that the Union invaded the Confederacy in a war of agression after the Confederate states made use of their legal right to leave the Union to become independent nations.
Under what theory was the dissolution of the United States "legal" by the South?
Furthermore, Fort Sumter was a federal reservation, and the firing upon it by the South was therefore an act of aggression.
when the Union didn't allow blacks to be more than menial labour and ship's cooks until the middle of WW2,
Your "history" of black units is at odds with the service of the 54th Massachusetts, the entire 18th Corps, other units as well as the 16 men that were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service during the Civil War.
While the Union did use many colored units as nothing more than labor brigades, the units under fire were as good as any in the Union army and performed as such.
The confederate flag is offensive to some people because some white racists choose to salute it. But it should be offensive to all Americans today because it was saluted by those who took up arms against the United States of America. Instead of feeling pride for some shameful "heritage" we should celebrate the nation we have become and still aspire to be.
Post a Comment