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Confederate flag brought to Anderson Co. school in fallen student's honor, sparks controversy [SC]
WSPA News7 ^ | November 30, 2018 | Nicole Ford

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: confederate; dixie; purge; racism
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To: miss marmelstein

Preservation of Southern history / heritage...consider joining Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Don’t let the liberal revisionist pervert and rewrite history.

Southern soldiers fought with valor and honor for the cause of the Confederacy.

http://www.scv.org/new/


21 posted on 12/01/2018 5:55:57 AM PST by servantboy777
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To: buckalfa

Any controversy or racial division is not caused by the flag. It is because of the narrow-minded protesting students and their supporters.


22 posted on 12/01/2018 5:59:34 AM PST by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said theoal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: buckalfa

“My son’s an African American student who’s never dealt with this and he’s not upset.”

Then what in the world is the problem?


23 posted on 12/01/2018 6:05:43 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: buckalfa; 2A Patriot; 2nd amendment mama; 4everontheRight; 77Jimmy; A Strict Constructionist; ...
Thin skins.

South Carolina Ping   

If you'd like to be on or off the South Carolina ping list, just click Private Reply below and drop me a FReepmail.

24 posted on 12/01/2018 6:06:11 AM PST by upchuck (When hatred of culture becomes itself a part of culture, the life of the mind loses all meaning.)
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To: DoodleDawg

Saw that. Attributed it to bad journalism.


25 posted on 12/01/2018 6:07:27 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: buckalfa

Bunch of these folks need to grow up.


26 posted on 12/01/2018 6:08:22 AM PST by upchuck (When hatred of culture becomes itself a part of culture, the life of the mind loses all meaning.)
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To: servantboy777
Erasing history and disrespecting descendants of soldiers and their families does no one any good. People need to toughen up and ignore what they do not like.
27 posted on 12/01/2018 6:30:58 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: kearnyirish2

LOL!


28 posted on 12/01/2018 6:32:12 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: miss marmelstein
Oh how I wish the days when folks could joke around and make light without some @$$hat gettin all nutted up or lil snowflake gettin the ol panties in a wad. lol

What really gets me, revisionist attempting to alter/pervert historical facts. What chaps me even more...these wussies that swallow this indoctrination hook, line and sinker rather than study/research on their own to disprove or support a position. Parroting someone else’s lie and upholding it as your own truth.

29 posted on 12/01/2018 6:45:19 AM PST by servantboy777
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To: buckalfa
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.

Patriotic? Patriotic toward what? It would be fair to conclude that the friends of the deceased understood their fallen friend's love of the confederacy by how they dressed to honor him. The confederate flag represents the confederacy and rebellion against the United Stated. It is not a patriotic American symbol. It is a confederate symbol. The symbol of American patriotism is the U.S. flag.

30 posted on 12/01/2018 6:47:34 AM PST by JesusIsLord
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To: buckalfa

They are trying to wipe out any vestige of Southern heritage because it’s easy. When we’ve been stomped on and ground underfoot they’ll start on someone else.


31 posted on 12/01/2018 6:48:01 AM PST by dljordan (WhoVoltaire: "To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.")
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To: JesusIsLord

Correct. To add to it, the CSA doesn’t even exist any more. It’s been gone. Long gone. You can’t support or inherit something that’s not existent.


32 posted on 12/01/2018 6:59:51 AM PST by patro
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To: MayflowerMadam
“’It’s demeaning to African American students because of its history,’ said Erica Gantt who is Pendleton mother of four.”

https://www.theblackloop.com/black-man-confederate-flag/

33 posted on 12/01/2018 7:16:33 AM PST by ontap
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To: buckalfa

My son goes to a high school in SC. It is a diverse bunch. It is good to see there are still boys with testosterone that drive big trucks and have rebel flags. It isn’t about whites or blacks it has become a lifestyle of southern masculinity and patriotism. They hunt, fish, work in trucks, wear boots, listen to country music and maybe have a confederate flag. In the other side if he coin you have boys who only wear Vineyard Vines.


34 posted on 12/01/2018 7:22:06 AM PST by NotchJohnson
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To: shelterguy
It’s demeaning to me that you can’t figure out if you are an African or an American.

Madison Rising - Before the Hyphens Came
35 posted on 12/01/2018 7:48:03 AM PST by Svartalfiar
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To: shelterguy

Yeah. And what about us British-Americans?


36 posted on 12/01/2018 7:53:17 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (Great things never come from comfort zones.)
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To: upchuck

I know the family. They don’t need media attention right now.


37 posted on 12/01/2018 7:59:43 AM PST by thoughtomator (Number of arrested coup conspirators to date: 2)
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Comment #38 Removed by Moderator

To: kearnyirish2
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.

I agree, although this observation clearly goes against conventional "wisdom".

I live in Western Washington - about as far from southern "good ol boys" as one can get. So it was especially amusing to read this "hate" article on one of the local news sites:

Swastikas, racist and homophobic Wi-Fi hotspot names pop up on phones during school assembly.

Now, I seriously doubt that any of these kids are sons of the south or are mindful of "heritage, not hate". I'm amused that they have discovered the iconography that disturbs the "establishment" and are (literally) waving it in their faces to mock and trigger them.

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” ― George Orwell, 1984

39 posted on 12/01/2018 8:05:29 AM PST by rockrr ( Everything is different now...)
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To: Paine in the Neck

The Rifleman, “The Sheridan Story”.


40 posted on 12/01/2018 8:17:28 AM PST by onedoug
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