David Crockett Students Are Upset Over Confederate Flag Issue
AP
Students and parents at one Tri-Cities school don’t agree with a decision by the school to not allow any t-shirts, flags or other items with the rebel flag symbol on it. SOUND OFF: Is this infringing on students’ freedom of speech? Were the flags being used to pay tribute or intimidate fellow students?
Published: November 14, 2008
Updated: November 14, 2008
Controversy is swirling at one high school in the Tri-Cities. Several viewers contacted News Channel 11 asking why the rebel flag had been from David Crockett High School.
“They are trying to make them take the stickers off their cars and everything,“
said Devon Lewis, student.
Parents also have issue with the new rule.
“I believe that people should be able to fly the flags they like to fly without everybody getting their feelings hurt,“ said Shawn Berry, parent.
Students said they were told by the school on Wednesday that the rebel flag or t-shirts and other items with the rebel flag on it will not be allowed at the school. Lewis said that students were bringing the rebel flag to school in honor of fellow student Michael Payne who recently died after an ATV accident.
Lewis also told us that several fights broke out at the school between white and Hispanic students, and then the announcement was made to not allow the rebel flag.
“I don’t believe it’s a racial issue at all, it’s just a tribute to Michael,“ Lewis said.
Officials with Washington County Schools did acknowledge Crockett’s principal is not allowing the rebel flag symbol at school.
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To all, I have come late to this discussion and I see many thought-provoking arguments, but a is often typical of human discussion, we fail to see the forest for the trees. The question should not be whether it is legal or right to allow students to display St. Andrews Cross (the correct name for the Confederate Battle Flag) but whether it is even right to send our children to public school in the first place. Most people incorrectly believe that compulsory public education is the way that we have always done things in the USA. The fact is that when Alexis deTocqueville teh French social historian visited the US in the 1830’s he found virtually universal literacy among the citizenry. He even found farmers plowing their fields reading classical literature in the original Greek and Latin. Could we say that today? Almost all of these people were home educated. Compulsory government schools arose as the northern industrialists found that educated men made lousy factory workers. Therefore they sent men like John Dewey, Edward Thorndike and the founders of American educational psychology to Germany to study how to effectively educate the masses, i.e., take away individual thinking and make them into good little conformists. Public education is about social indoctrination first and foremost. Even such sacred cows as the Pledge of Allegiance was written by an avowed socialist to create a conformist mindset among school children.
Home schooling is the fastest growing sector of education. Perhaps it is because more people are recognizing that despite the good intentions of the thousands of good teachers across our land, the system is a failure that no amount of money can fix. Children are foremost, parents’ responsibility, not the State’s. Therefore, I maintain that the real quesiton is not whether the Confederate Battle Flag should be allowed but whether there should even be schools in the first place, and one of the benefits is that the kids can learn real history and not just pre-digested PC history. Students can even where their flags to school, as long as their parents approve.
Tennesseemam, Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew, a Semite. He was NOT a “man of color” if by that you mean black. Semites - Jews and Arabs are “white”. Persians (Iran) are white. The people of India are also part of the Caucasian people; they are white. Now what they are NOT are “European” whites. I think that this is where you are confused. Many European whites are fair haired and light skinned. On the other hand, whites from North African, the Middle East and other areas are darker skinned and dark haired. But the race is the same.
There is nothing inherently “good” or “bad” in any race. Those qualities are limited to individual people. People who “define” themselves as a matter of race can make no claim to superiority for their race over others or the inherent inferiority of any other race. And the same can be said for “ethnic” differences within races whether it be a matter of country or tribe.
Beware of people who declare their love for “mankind”. Generally, these are the people who care nothing for “men” individually and in their grandiose schemes to “save mankind” commit horrendous atrocities against their fellow men
They tried to ban the flag in Unicoi… It didn’t work… Remember, as a parent or grandparent pick your battles wisely… Don’t sweat the small stuff… As for the fighting, it would have happened whether the flag was present or not… Ask those in Florida, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado etc…
crys,
That is teriffic. If Washington County has a school dress code then it should be enforced fairly.
Normally a dress code restricts students from wearing clothing which reveals certain parts of the body, clothing which has guns, drugs, and vulgar language printed on it.
However, I suppose I can see where a rebel flag can be considered as a distraction. However, clothing which has a Rebel Flag, American Flag, or any flag for that matter, as well as clothing that has basketball/football/baseball team logos or mascots, race car drivers, teams, numbers, music artists, bands, and actors can be considered as a distraction as well. And some people may easily take offense to that too. (For example a student may take offense to a fellow student wearing a shirt which shows an out of state team). So students shouldn’t wear any clothing which shows those items as well.
This means students should refrain from wearing plain jane clothing that has emblems or logos on it, such as Polo or Tommy Hilfiger or any other clothing that has a symbol. Heaven forbid that a student take offense to that symbol and decide to break out a fight as a result of that.
Just remember: People may take offense to ANY of those items.
Because there is a dress code, it should not be partially enforced. It should be enforced in a manner that is fair to every faculty and student attending.
It’s not fair for students to wear clothing with Dale Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon or clothing with student’s favorite football teams on them while other students can not wear clothing with a Rebel Flag on it.
Remember, all those things can be considered as a “distraction” and therefore would violate a school dress code.
In my opinion that dress code still violates the 1st Amendment right. The sad thing is that our population no longer cares that our rights are being trampled on and will accept the restrictions with absolutely no reasoning other than “It’s offensive” when in all reality it’s not.
The point remains that while all topics including the history of confederates and other issues i.e. school prayer has been talked about little has been mentioned about the actual school codes…that is…all Washington County schools have dress and school codes that say no one is allowed to wear or have any paraphenalia that is a distraction to any of the other students…and that it is up to the administration of the schools to decide the appropriate enforcement of the code
Here is my thoughts about the school banning the Rebel Flag.
Unless there is proof that the students were waving the flag in a manner that was racial, it should not be banned. In fact, it shouldn’t be banned even if the students were waving it in a racial matter. The students in question should be disciplined instead.
The First Amendment allows us Americans the Freedom of Speech and Expression. If these students had rebel flag bumper stickers or flags on their vehicles, or rebel flag clothing, and were acting in good faith, and someone else interpreted it as racial, then perhaps that person with the misinterpretation should be separated from the rest of the school body.
When I see a rebel flag, I do not think of it as history or part of a war or anything. I simply see it as a symbol of expression. I see people every day that have bumper stickers and license tags of many symbols- The Mexican flag, the Canadian flag, their favorite sports teams, etc, etc.
If the school is going to go to the extent of banning a certain symbol from being allowed to be expressed by its students, then this school should be FAIR- the school should ban the display of any expression symbols. Students, its time to take any bumper stickers or license tags off your vehicles which has ANY symbol on it, including the American flag, or any other country’s flag, your favorite basketball team, race car driver, etc. etc. Stop wearing clothing of the same.
The school needs to take the State Flag and the American Flag down too.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression applies to everyone, and should not be restricted by anyone for any reason.
Maybe the school should allow ALL the students to vote on the issue. Should the students be allowed to display rebel flags? Let the students make the decision. If it turns out that everyone but the few hispanics is okay with the rebel flag, then perhaps the school should educate this small handful of students about the First Amendment and how to cope with Freedom of Speech. If this small handful of students further disagree with the rights this country was built upon, then perhaps the school administration should show them the door and let them excersize their “freedom of choice” to leave the school.
This is not about the civil war, slavery, or anything else. It’s about the student’s right to freedom of speech and expression.
Sound fair enough?
To those of you who disagree with the decision of the school’s administration, perhaps it’s time we as American citizens exercize our “freedom of speech” and contact the school administration directly and remind them of the 1st Amendment and the student’s rights in this country.
I think it’s a crock that the decision makers of this country (and schools) is willing to cripple our rights to satisfy a small handful of minorities that don’t agree the core values that this country was built upon.
Do you think I like seeing hispanics riding around with Mexican flag license plates on the front of their cars? Am I going to the law makers and begging them to ban the display of the Mexican flag? No. They have as much right to display their flag as much as I have the right to display the American flag or the Rebel flag.
It’s all about rights, people. And nothing more, and nothing less.
So let’s not “throw in the flag” on this issue. Stand up for your rights!
This is to Hokie 1,I am from the South and right now I am ashamed of any of us that act like YOU,and do not paraphrase with Amen,The Lord Jesus Christ never done anything to you or your kind.If you read your BIBLE he was a man of COLOR.
This discussion has got way off base. The civil war is over,finished,done…that is why they call it history. Get over it!It is not about racism,slavery or the civil war.Everyone can sit at their computers all day and spout off historical facts but the most important one has been lost in all the bickering. That one fact is that we, as American citizens, are guaranteed the right to free speech and expression by the Constitution of The United States of America! It does not matter if you offend someone in the process, you STILL HAVE RIGHTS ! All of you who think otherwise, let me just point out one simple fact…at some point someone may decide that one of your right offends them and want to take it from you, let’s see how you feel then.If and when that happens think back to this post and your comments about people’s right, keep your mouth shut and freely give up YOUR right,no matter how strongly you feel because that is what you have been saying is the right thing to do!
I am a former student of David Crockett High School a recent one from 2007. I agree with a lot of comments on this page and I disagree with a lot. I have some points I would like to make. First, Mr. Marable is a great Principal and since he came to DCHS he has done great things for this school that a lot of your children go to. Has any of you that have such strong words for him ever thanked him for saving your child’s life when a student brought a gun to shool and he found this student and stopped whatever his purpose? I am not sure why this incident came to be,but I will say my family and in particular my siblings knew Micheal well. No one can bring Micheal back and I can understand why his friends would want to keep his memory,but we have to understand Mr. Marable NEVER takes personal issues with anything, walk into his office see all the great articles written about him. Take the time to meet him in person, I had the honor of being in a school were he was Principal all four years of my High School education and now I can say DCHS was the best school I could have went to and, that man, Mr. Marable is the one who made it that way. As a Christian as many of you have said are on here, we have to learn that we are not suppose to judge. Secondly, Slavery was about free labor, I am not saying there was not slave masters that took good care of their workers,but we know it was most definitely not a walk along the beach for these slaves that had to live in this time period. Lastly,Let’s not let our racism show so openly, to the person that had the comment of sending The Hispanic Students back to Mexico, Perhaps if people before our time had such a comment about Africans, they would have sent them back home too and our history would be different. But then again our history knows that this country was once ran by slave workers and had they not been here we may not be the country we are now.
Sonofthesouth, confederate soldiers from east tennessee weren’t impossible. Just uncommon. Oh did I not mention that I moved from mississippi? My roots are here.
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