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Monday, October 5, 2009

Confederate-flag T-shirts have no business at school
File photo of a Confederate flag hanging in a garage at a private club in LaGrangeville, N.Y. (HOWARD SIMMONS / New York Daily News)

Sometimes silence says it all.

Take today’s decision, without comment, by the U.S. Supreme Court that let stand a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit by students who wanted to wear Confederate-flag T-shirts at their high school.
 
The court’s silence said even freedom of speech has its limits, in particular, when public safety is at issue.
 
The lawsuit in the case of Barr v. LaFon challenged a 2005 policy banning images of the Confederate flag at William Blount High School in Maryville, Tenn.
 
The ban was enacted after a fight between an African American student and a white student that led to racist graffiti being painted on school walls, including a drawing of a noose next to a Confederate flag in the boys’ bathroom.
 
In such an environment it was only a matter time before more violence occurred.
 
The Supreme Court was right to support dismissal of the lawsuit first by a district court and then by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
 
Wearing Confederate-flag T-shirts at a racially mixed school is like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. You can expect someone to get hurt.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 4:05 PM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:33 PM, 10/05/2009
    If we're talking about the power of flags as symbols, does the Inquirer Editorial Board believe we should prohibit flag-burning (or flag desecration) as well? I realize the Barr decision relates solely to a school setting (and the facts stated in the opinion are pretty egregious), but the above editorial's simplistic analysis -- if you can call it that -- might apply to, say, burning a U.S. flag at a parade. The Barr holding couches its analysis in the context of the authority of schools to limit First Amendment rights of students; did the Inquirer Editorial Board even consider whether such a holding might apply to parallel situations not involving the easy target of a Confederate flag?
    — J H
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:15 AM, 10/07/2009
    School dress codes are important. Clothing is often a distraction in classrooms, especially messages on shirts. That works against keeping a learning environment.
    — Falls Ed


2 comments
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