Confederate Flag Fight Rises Again in High School

WVLT-TV, Knoxville, Tennessee ^ | 1/17/06 | Stephen McLamb

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Maryville, Blount County (WVLT) - The issue involving the confederate flag is coming back in Blount County after students at a local high school were ordered to cover up their shirts on Friday with the confederate flag on it.

WVLT Volunteer TV's Blount County Bureau Chief Stephen McLamb has the latest.

More than 150 students at William Blount High School have signed a petition seeking support for the right to wear confederate symbols on shirts and other clothing items.

But students who wore the emblem on Friday say they were threatened with suspension if they didn't cover up.

Some students say they support the right to express their confederate heritage that the school has taken away.

Many students came to school on Friday wearing a confederate symbol but say school officials then threatened them.

"If we didn't they said that they were going to suspend us, but my friend Bruce, they threatened my friend Bruce that if he didn't turn his shirt inside out, they were going to take him to juvenile," says Derek Barr, who started the flag petition.

Barr says he hopes to seek more signatures for his petition but says he's concerned about retaliation from school officials.

Attempts to contact Principal Steve Lafon or Superintendent Alvin Hord were unsuccessful.

The policy may be facing legal action, local Sons of Confederates Camp Commander Ron Jones says they will be assisting the students should a suit be filed against the school system.

[youthgonewild]

Ahh, everyone's guessing wrong, I'm actually from Montgomery County. I do know the poor state PG County is in though. I at least think its better off than any other primarily black area in America. Also, I'll guarantee a Confederate flag being waved there would almost certainly result in physical injury.

[youthgonewild]

The Confederacy separated from the Union because they wanted to keep blacks enslaved on their plantations, pure and simple. If your minority neighbors aren't offended they either are ignorant or assume you are active in Civil War reenactment.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Oh, the leaders of that insurrection were traitors or the word has no meaning. Many, if not most, of their followers were dupes ignorantly following the lies of the traitors. There were NO states' rights being attacked. There was NO right to secede from the Union. There was NO "tyranny" being resisted. Political power had been in the hands of the South almost uninterrupted since the founding. Washington spent his Farewell Address arguing against such men.

There was a long standing conspiracy by the Slavers to break up the Union. This conspiracy engineered the victory of Lincoln by deliberately splitting the Democrat party into three groups insuring defeat.

Today's political alignment has nothing to do with the treason of the Southern leaders.

[calex59]

I wonder what they would do if someone were to tattoo a Rebel Flag on their forehead? I'm a big supporter of Free Speech, even if it is offensive.

Your pprejudice is showing! what a jerk you are! Do you know these kids personally or are you just lumping them in with someone you happened to see once? You support freedom of speech? You sure as hell don't and your entire post shows it.

[NJ_gent]

"Also, I'll guarantee a Confederate flag being waved there would almost certainly result in physical injury."

Not when I was living there a number of years ago, but who knows about now. In any event, others' misinterpretations regarding the meaning of something do not change the meaning of that thing.

The Confederate flag represents the struggle between state and Federal power; the fight between being governed from home, or governed from a distant city. In many ways, it parallels the fight between the American colonies and the British. Imagine, if you will, how that war would have turned out if Britain and the American colonies were physically connected over a wide area. We'd have never stood a chance. Considering the odds, the Confederates did quite well for themselves.

[NJ_gent]

"There was NO right to secede from the Union. There was NO "tyranny" being resisted."

You've just contradicted yourself. I'm sorry you don't see that.

"There was a long standing conspiracy by the Slavers to break up the Union."

The whole world is one big conspiracy.

"This conspiracy engineered the victory of Lincoln"

In many places, Lincoln wasn't even on the ballot.

[Chickenhawk Warmonger]

As a born and bred Confederate "flagger" I find your comments ignorant and offensive. The Confederate Battle Flag is part of our heritage and is not a symbol of slavery. It has nothing to do with being a redneck or any other mindless stereotype that you want to throw in. Anyone with any knowledge of the TRUE history of the south, and not just the sanitized politically correct NAACP version, would know that.

I find that most Confederate "flaggers" are the least racist people I know. Our Confederate BATTLE flag flies high on our flagpole along with the American flag. And yes I do get defensive when confronted with ignorance.

[puroresu]

The PC-Cons are out in full tonight! Conspiracy indeed! :-)

[justshutupandtakeit]

There is no contradiction as any who knows of the letter from Madison to Hamilton at the time of the NY state ratification convention could tell you. M told H that a "conditional" ratification was not acceptable and "once in the Union always in the Union." Though I suppose a state could be expelled through a constitutional amendment. Or allowed to leave nothing short of that is legal. The decision to ratify was by the American people gathered in convention in the states. It was NOT by a state action. That was explicitly prevented just for the reason that a legislative action could be undone as the Slavers tried. Fortunately our Founders were too smart for the Traitors of 1861.

Check out the Charleston Convention if you do not believe there was a conspiracy to destroy the Union by the Slavers.

Lincoln didn't have to be on the ballot to win if those states were divided by three RAT candidates.

[puroresu]

If we're such disgusting traitors, why have we southerners provided so many volunteers to defend America in battle? Why has the south always been among the most patriotic regions of our nation? Why are we among the most conservative regions, vehemently opposed to the anti-Americanist and the Blame-America-First crowd?

Think you'll find much support for the Rebel Flag among the Michael Moores, the John Kerrys, or the Cindy Sheehans? Their attitude towards Dixie is one of hostility.

[billbears]

The 'Rebel' flag has a right to fly anywhere someone recognizes and respects their heritage.

[NJ_gent]

"The Confederacy separated from the Union because they wanted to keep blacks enslaved on their plantations, pure and simple."

This is a factually and objectively void statement. Please, at least read the Confederate Constitution before making such an absurd statement. Slavery in the South was gradually dying anyway. The international slave trade was already banned. The Confederate Constitution also banned the international slave trade. That left the domestic slave trade, of which Maryland (Union state) was a major player.

The problem was not slavery; it was partly economic and largely a matter of pride over self-governance. The people of the South did not want to be controlled by a bunch of a--holes in Washington. Instead, they felt that the powers not delegated to the Federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, should be reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. That the Federal government chose to stick it's nose where it didn't belong was a major cause of the secession. That the Federal government chose to interfere with the inherent and undeniable right of the states to secede is what sparked a war.

To reduce the cause to a simple, one-word answer is to piss on the graves of the hundreds of thousands of American men, women, and children on both sides who bled and died on their own soil. I think it's absolutely disgusting that liberals teach that crap in schools, and I find it incredibly aggrivating when I hear adults spewing it.

[NJ_gent]

"If we're such disgusting traitors"

Don't even bother; yankees don't understand that we actually identify with our people and our history. To them, the "Civil War" is just another entry in the history book they took tests on in high school.

I've never met a yankee who understands what I mean when I say we're still fightin' the war. They think it's a joke.

[x]

Think you'll find much support for the Rebel Flag among the Michael Moores, the John Kerrys, or the Cindy Sheehans? Their attitude towards Dixie is one of hostility.

But the left might find a lot to be said for secession.

LewRockwell.com praises the Vermont secession movement, and it's likely that some in that movement and elsewhere on the political left would look fondly on Southern secession. Anything that weakens the United States finds fortune in some quarters.

The idea that the Confederacy or "Dixie" represents the opposite of the left is mistaken. The Democrat Party that gave us Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt long favored "Dixie" and its battle against Reconstruction. You can see some of that affinity even today in Gore Vidal's writing.

[hoosierham]

There was no right to leave the British empire ,either.

Hence,Washington and his friends were traitors subject to being hanged if captured ,if the British thought it helpful to their empire.

Washington's associates owned slaves so it would be obvious to any logical mind the difference is simply that the CSA lost the war.

The non-right to secede is the same in both cases regardless of the claims pot forth to justify secession.

Remember,if it succeeds none dare call it treason.

[hoosierham]

And let me add that I believe schools would be better if no pictures or slogans were allowed on clothing.

[Mears]

bump

[varina davis]

"uneducated"

How about a refresher course in Americana and American history? Do you a world of good.

[varina davis]

Oh, they are also self described "whites". What, it ain't PC to describe oneself as "white" anymore? Should I find someone else to stand on the sidelines and describe me as white, therefore removing my ego from the equation? Okay, then I'll try it your way: "Somebody told me I am a white man who has no problem with displays of the Confederate Battle Flag and Naval Jack or the Bonnie Blue, as well as the Flag of the United States." Guess I'm now a racist, since I obviously can't "feel their pain", whatever that means and I've known for over 50 years that I am white. And it generates no guilt in me whatever. But the blood my ancestors shed for the defense of the Confederate Flag (rightly or wrongly) is the same color as the blood I shed for the Flag of the United States. And I have had a moment or two of wondering if that was for the right reasons, also. Oh, yeah, I assure you, I'm very well educated, but I don't travel in the company of like minded "flaggers" or at least I don't think I do; but then, I have no idea what a "flagger" is. I wonder what they would do if someone were to tattoo a Rebel Flag on their forehead? Well, most likely there would be one hell of an ass-whooping if someone tried. And just what does a festering sewer-hole like Oakland got to do with anything? My experience with the Confederate Flag folks... It appears your experience may be just a little limited.

Worth repeating!

[wardaddy]

symbolism over substance to some apparently