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Girl Sues School Over Confederate Flag



Is it okay to wear a shirt bearing the Confederate flag in school?

Yes
25
69%
No
11
31%
 
Total votes : 36


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Sat Apr 01, 2006 6:40 pm
Nate says...



Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12098519/

FLORENCE, S.C. - The family of a high school sophomore has filed a suit seeking to force school officials to allow the girl to wear clothing with Confederate flag images.

The federal lawsuit was filed Thursday by the North Carolina-based Southern Legal Resource Center, a Confederate heritage legal advocacy group.

Candice Hardwick, 15, said she wants to wear the Confederate emblem to pay tribute to an ancestor who fought for the South in the Civil War.


This was a story I found on MSNBC and it had a poll to go along with it. To my surprise 56% of people sided with the student. I actually do as well as it's a freedom of speech issue and students everywhere already have very few rights when on school property. But of course, a very strong case can also be made for not allowing students to wear a shirt that bears the confederate flag. So I'm curious as to what YWS'ers think.
  





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Sat Apr 01, 2006 8:11 pm
sabradan says...



Freedom of speech. People can write, wear and say whatever they want. They just have toaccept the consequences that come with said speech. For example, if you wear a confederate flag, odds are you need to prepared to be beaten to within an inch of your life by a bunch of angyr black men, etc, etc.
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Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:00 pm
Rei says...



Freedom of speech is freedom of speech. A shirt like that is not overtly racist or sexist, as far as I am aware, and everything will always offend someone, I see no reason not to wear it.
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Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:03 pm
smaur says...



If someone can wear a t-shirt as sexist as, "I'm too pretty to do math," to school, they can dang well wear this.
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Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:26 pm
Rei says...



Very true. Although with certain sexist shirts and all kind of racist ones, schools in Canada would not allow you to wear them. Schools do have dress codes, and certain materials do not belong in schools. My drama teacher refused to let a student into class when she wore a shirt that said "Pimp in training." A flag that shows the girl knows her history is not one of those. In general, though, I do support casual uniforms. But if you're not going to have one, then you should be prepared to allow the students to express themselves.
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Sun Apr 02, 2006 1:13 am
Bobo says...



I figure that students could wear a confederate flag to support the Southern States or something like that, although it seems to me that the automatic thought when you see the flag is that a) they're racist against african-americans, and/or b) they are basically traitors to the country. The confederate flag represents a group of states that broke off from the Union and fought against things that America holds dear now. It's a big jumble, really.
  





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Sun Apr 02, 2006 2:08 am
backgroundbob says...



Well, here in the UK people still use Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish flags to represent their countries, even though they've amalgamated and all lost their soveriegnty as separate nations. There's plenty of bloodshed and conflict in the histories of the four states, but no-one would dispute a persons right to stick their flag out: it's a sign of patriotism that pretty much anyone will respect, if they even notice it at all.

However, there is one question: if the school is an institution funded by the government of the United States of America, what are they doing flying any other flag than that one? The Confederate States don't exist as a political entity anymore (I think - correct me if I'm wrong), whereas Scotland etc. do: that, I think, is the main issue, and one to be raised by government officials and not students. Of course, it's usually left to the students to do this sort of thing, so hey...

Overall I think that the flag is a much more important symbol in America than the UK, and by raising a Confederate flag, they're effectively claiming their alligiance to be something other than the USA - that, I think, is or should be illegal in a state run/funded institution.
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Sun Apr 02, 2006 2:21 am
Zelithan says...



Code: Select all
Well Scottish and English flags on't have definate 'bad guys' and 'good guys' right? Supporting of slavery vs. freedom. Although  think the girl is wrong, i also think she shuold be able to wear it. Even after she gets shot.
  





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Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:10 am
Bobo says...



Bob, the girl was wearing the flag on her shirt; the school was not flying it.
  





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Sun Apr 02, 2006 1:56 pm
backgroundbob says...



Geez, I'm slow.

Allowable - no dress code means no dress code: if there's a uniform, she can't wear it, if there's not, she can wear what she flippin' well pleases. I don't think she should wear it, because it does cause tension at the moment, but as a general rule people need to learn to get over themselves. We don't force people not to wear sports team shirts - the War ended over 140 years ago, and people need to get over it. Today, and right-thinking person would remember the sacrifice and service of ordinary rank-and-file Axis soldiers in WWII as much as those of the Allies - it doesn't mean you agree with the Nazis, it doesn't mean you wear a Nazi shirt or claim you love Adolf Hitler. What it does mean is that you acknowledge there's enough blame and heroism to go around both sides in a war, and the old hatreds are better forgotten.

Wearing a Confederate shirt isn't illegal, but then, neither is wear a Nazi shirt. If you're honestly thinking about what's best for people in general, however, you'll probably know what to do. And what no to.
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Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:15 pm
Bjorn says...



I'm starting to admire the NSK the more and more as I see things like this. It's a form of supression when something like this happens. It agrieves me that the symbols of the 'losers' or 'bad-guys' in history are supressed in the victorious nations-sure it may promote hate, but what if it promotes your ideological preferences? (And don't democratic states have freedom of expression?). Or maybe it's just aesthetically pleasing to the persons eye. What I'm getting at is simple-it's a free country, let her wear it!

On a sidenote: What the NSK strives to get people to understand is that these democratic values are as much a form of totalitarianism as Stalinism or Nazism was/is. They are an avante garde movement who take the language of manipulation, art of these totalitarian systems, and manipulate it. So people look at these and what comes to mind is NAZI, but then, it is in no way promoting it! In fact degrading it's image! 'You cannot change if you do not face your fears' is basically what the NSK is saying. So when you supress what individuals believe or wish to do, that is totalitarian-not freedom. And you think the girls a rebel, and to those who comply with the laws of the state or society, yes, she is-but then, is she indeed? Did the U.S.S.R see itself as the devil, something the Americans saw it as, or did it see America as the evil? (just an example, sorry if this is off-topic)
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Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:30 pm
backgroundbob says...



Nah, it's pretty on-topic.

This is why I've said it's allowable but stupid, effectively. Because we're in a democracy, we should have the right to do things like this, despite the fact that it's just harking back to an age of racism. I'm free to run around the streets shouting 'NAZIS FOREVER!' despite the fact that it's a lamebrain thing to be doing.
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Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:58 pm
Elizabeth says...



What Backgroundbob said....
  





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Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:17 am
Areida says...



Bobo wrote:I figure that students could wear a confederate flag to support the Southern States or something like that, although it seems to me that the automatic thought when you see the flag is that a) they're racist against african-americans, and/or b) they are basically traitors to the country. The confederate flag represents a group of states that broke off from the Union and fought against things that America holds dear now. It's a big jumble, really.


Wow. Just wow.

The Confederate States broke off because they felt their rights as Americans were being infringed upon. They fought for their states and the rights therein, for their homes and their families, for the freedom to reform things in a new nation that they disliked in the Union. And the whole slave thing... well...

wikipedia.org wrote:The origins of the American Civil War lay in the complex issues of slavery, politics, disagreements over the scope of States' rights versus federal power, expansionism, sectionalism, economics, modernization, and competing nationalism of the Antebellum period.


Only a tiny fraction of southerners owned slaves. In fact, Grant still owned a couple even after the war ended!

I don't see what the big deal is with this girl wearing a shirt with the Confederate flag on it. I second smaur.
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Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:21 am
Rei says...



Agreed. As long as you're not spraying swastikas (sp?) on houses and knocking over graves in a Jewish cemetary (or worse, or and other hate crime related to another culture) you can pretty much say or do whatever you want. While wearing the flag could be interpreted as racism, I don't think she meant it that way.
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