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.
Remember that inclusion does not include items banned by left wing fascists.
a men brother la. cajun
Couldn’t agree more. Our past is our past good, bad and ugly. And if people want to celebrate their heritage, they should do so without crybabies making a fuss. I had to put up with stupid muslims walking around in their burkas and hijabs when I lived in NJ & NY. They should at least let others fly a flag if they want.
It looks to me as if the deceased child was himself of mixed racial ancestry.
I don’t think of whites in Western Washington as Klansmen, but I also think they are isolated from much of the racial turmoil of the rest of the country - and are quite happy to live away from those problems.
Kids in Washington tend not to be anything more than wannabees. Wannabe gangsters, Wannabe klan, Wannabe wiggers, you name it. And then there’s Aunty-FA and all thse Wannabes (don’t get me started). I think it’s always been this way. When I was coming up it was cool to emulate James Dean - even though he died ten years previously.
Hardly an original theme...
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