Thursday, September 01, 2016
School Reverses American Flag Ban
Editor’s note: In a week that saw an NFL star dissing the national anthem, there’s a bit of good news out there too…
Students at Travelers Rest High School in South Carolina will once again be able to wave American flags at football games. Principal Lou Lavely reversed his ban on Old Glory just a few hours after we posted a column about the controversial decision.
The high school’s stadium is named after my great uncle — Chico Bolin, a decorated World War II Marine veteran. Uncle Chico restarted the football program at Travelers Rest in 1949 and named the team the Devildogs in honor of the Marines.
Following is the school district’s complete statement:
“[A]fter meeting with Travelers Rest student and faculty leadership, and with the benefit of time to reflect, Mr. Lavely has reached a different decision. He based this decision on current students' request that he judge them on their own merits and not based on the actions of past students. As a result, effective immediately, students are allowed to bring the American Flag to any and all Travelers Rest High School events. Instead of restricting possession of the flag, the TRHS administration will, if needed, address the misuse of the Flag, or any other inappropriate behavior, on an individual basis.”
“I fully support Mr. Lavely’s thoughtful reconsideration, and his willingness to respond to advice and input from his community,” said Superintendent Burke Royster. “I am appreciative of the Travelers Rest High School community for sharing its concerns and opinions on this matter in a respectful, civil manner. I also appreciate and applaud their desire to promote patriotism and service as a part of the culture of their school and am in agreement that students' desire to carry and display the American flag should be encouraged and supported throughout the District.”
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5 comments:
Man, them cockroaches sure do scurry from the light.
Not sure what brought on the ban in the first place, probably insulting to Muslims I bet or just make-busy. These morons need to be demoted to cave housework as a fitting career.
Olaf Koenders,
What "brought the ban" is that the rival to the high school is made up of mostly Hispanics. At last years football game, the people in the stands carrying American flags shouted at the fans of the other school to "go home!" and made other remarks that lacked class and could have invoked a fight.
The principal had the right idea - keeping the peace and not creating a situation where students would engage in fights - but the overall ban on American flags went too far.
Now the policy will be that people with flags taunting or creating a disturbance will have the flags confiscated and be asked to leave.
The policy went from an overall ban to a specific, case by case ban.
As for "homework," please do your own. In the US schools can restrict speech (such as waving a flag) if they feel the speech will disrupt the school's learning environment or a school led function (such as a football game.) The school and the principal were well within the law and precedent with the initial ban, but it is good to see that the administration listened to people who came up with a solution that achieved the same results the school wanted.
Thanks for that Anon. I wasn't sure what the kerfuffle was about.
In any case, the administration's knee-jerk was typically a bridge too far. I don't see how banning flags would automatically turn everyone into a peaceful automaton. How the admin made their original decision is beyond me. What normally happens is the troublemakers alone are removed. Simple. At least they were shown the error in their original decision.
Olaf Koenders.
Banning flags would not have created a peace loving moment of understanding. However, what it would have done is stopped the poles on which the flags were being displayed as being used as a weapon in a fight. The ban prevented both the object of the taunting and the ability to use it in a fight.
That was one of the objections to the ban - that even flags that were not on poles were stopped from entering the stands.
The principal made a decision in an appropriate manner and people reacted to it in an appropriate manner. That's the way things should work.
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