We have previously discussed the ongoing controversy over the confederate flag as well as past cases of student speech being curtailed. This story combines those themes after Jordan Beattie, a student at Cossa Academy in Wilder, Idaho was banned from flying the confederate flag that his girlfriend had given him. He was told that the flag was interpreted to be a gang symbol.
Schools officials said that they found an image of the flag on a gang site used by the local police but the Caldwell Police Department Gang Unit told the media that it was unsure as to where the school received that information. Caldwell Police Department Captain Frank Wyant said “We don’t look at the Confederate flag as a gang symbol. We don’t encourage anybody to take it down. Those are their rights and that’s what we’re here for is to protect and uphold those rights.”
Caldwell Police Department uses information from the website http://www.idahogangs.com. which lists the Confederate flag as an identifier of possible gang ties for “Aryan” gangs though it can also be simply a confederate heritage symbol.
I fail to see the basis for the decision. This is clearly not being used as a gang symbol and anyone with a Confederate flag could be similarly barred because some group happens to sometimes incorporate the symbol. It is also a symbol used by others for cultural or historical identification.
We have previously discussed cases where students were punished for displaying the Confederate flag, including cases involving flags on cars. There is a growing presumption against student free speech, particularly when it comes to unpopular or divisive symbols. This extends in this cases and earlier cases to symbols on cars in a parking lot — outside the school building or classrooms. I find that troubling from a free speech perspective.
What do you think?
Source: Scripps Media
I strongly urge everyone to read the comment by the gentleman from Canada made @ 9:02am. In it he shows just how ignorant he is of the US Constitution. I direct your attention to the key sentences toward the end of the uninformed comment. “PERSONAL LIBERTIES ARE DIFFERENT THAN COLLECTIVE ONES. WHEN PUBLIC OPINION DECIDES THAT SOMETHING IS ENOUGH AND RECOGNIZES THE HATE CONNECTED TO THE STARS AND BARS OR THE SWASTIKA THAT IS DEMOCRACY.”
I learned IN SIXTH GRADE civics that the US Constitution is about INDIVIDUAL rights. In the mindset of this socialist/communist, if the majority see a movie, book, painting, etc. as hateful, then it should be banned. The tyranny of the majority is what this dangerously ignorant man seeks.
It is fascinating how an inanimate object will generate so much vitriol while the REAL infringement of natural rights is carried out daily by our very animated, administrative state.
You’re not a supporter of free speech if you don’t support the freedom of others to say things you disagree with or even find repugnant. The school is in the wrong.
I don’t like looking at that rag, but I figure if the douchebags want to advertisement who they are, well, then thanks for the heads up. It’s like carrying around a sign that says, “I’m proud to be an idiot.”
And, I might add a statement made by Supreme Court Justice Holmes back in 1927 in the case of Buck v. Bell. That case involved the sterilization of humans who were mentally retarded. Holmes said: “Three generations of imbeciles are enough!”
inalienable rights
Could have been it was about the inalienable right to own slaves? Yeah, I think that was it. Now take a peek at history.
Issac
Lincoln didn’t fight the South to abolish slavery so why is it inaccurate to say that some southerners weren’t fighting to keep slavery?
The flag depicted is the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. It was not carried by other troops from other state militias in the Confederate Army. It is the Battle Flag of the Ku Klux Klan. Or is it sher pulled “Klue”. Those people who make a positive statement that the Confederate Flag is
“my heritage” are perhaps stating the truth. Ask the person some questions: 1) where any of your ancestors in the United States or in North America in 1860 through 1865? 2) Did any of those ancestors fight on either side in the civil war and if so for which state entity or state militia or army? 3) Did your grand daddy, daddy, or you ever belong to the Kluless Kluk Klan? 4) Did they ever participate in, or sit idly by, during a lynching?
These questions can be asked rather quickly and usually the person who answers truthfully will reveal that he or she is the fourth generation Klan member or the Klan is in their “heritage”.
In some ways it is good for Klan members to fly the flag so that the rest of us will know who they are. But the rest of us should not fall for that stupid statement made so often that the Confederate Flag depicted was the battle flag of every Southerner who fought in the Civil War. It was not.
The student with the flag will probably follow the lead of some other criminal and have a tatoo of a swastica put on his forehead.
BarkinDog – you could ask them a single question. Are you in favor of States Rights?
Another non event. I would ignore the psychopaths that run that school….
It looks to me like this Federally initiated divide and conquer plan is working as expected.
There would not have been a Civil War if it were not for slavery. This is historical fact. The ‘Stars and Bars’ is the battle flag or whatever of the side that wanted to keep slavery. It follows that the ‘Stars and Bars’ represents slavery. The ‘Stars and Bars’ should not be flown over or on any government institution. However, if some own is so ignorant or argumentative that they want to tattoo it on their forehead, arm, or chest, or hang it on their car or the wall of their dorm room then that is a personal liberty. Personal liberties are different than collective ones. When public opinion decides that something is enough and recognizes the hate attached to the Stars and Bars or the Swastika that is democracy. Not everyone will want what the majority wants. That’s why you get to protest, no matter how stupid you might be.
Where did you get your info Issac, the National Enquirer? OR possible a government school?
Anyone that has done any due diligence knows that the civil war had nothing to do with slavery….
“Personal liberties are different than collective ones. ” —- Sounds like you got that one out of the Communist Manifesto. (again taught in a government school)
Ironic that we have the totally uninformed calling people stupid….
From 10,000 feet, this eradication of cultural symbols looks a lot like what’s going on in the Middle East. Cultural progress or regression?
In California, white kids couldn’t wear the American flag on Cinco de Mayo so I’m surprised school officials had to reach this far for justification.
Bo and Luke Duke did put dynamite on arrows and blow up outhouses and run moonshine so I guess they were a criminal enterprise.
Kurt Metzger, talking with Sharrod Small on their podcast ‘Race Wars’, did have a pretty good run down on the difference between “redneck” and “shitkicker” which I would call most people from Idaho.
I have a feeling the powers to be at the school objected to the flag and looked long and hard for a way to justify their censorship. They found it on the website quoted, though It was not specific. In fact here is a list of what surrounded it under the “Aryan” group of gangs”
Swastikas
• Lighting bolts
• 88 represents Heil Hitler (the eighth letter of the alphabet is H)
• 14 represents the 14 words “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” which is the battle cry and rallying slogan for the white supremacist movement
• 666 represents the devil
• 100% represents the need for a pure white race that is uncorrupted by interracial relationships
• Three leaf clovers
• Phrases such as “White Power” and “White Pride”
• WPWW stands for “White Pride World Wide”
• SWP stands for “Supreme White Power”
• Iron crosses
• Nazi Symbols such as the warbird
• Confederate flag
• Odinist symbols
• Anarchist symbols.
The only gang showing possible use would be the KKK. Yet, under the school’s logic depictions of lightning bolts, three leaf clovers, even the American Flag could be used and in fact the US flag is often displayed at KKK events. So, should we ban the US flag because some KKK supporter hoists it above his house?
Now that the police department effectively dispelled the link between the confederate/rebel flag and gangs it seems the school really has no reason to censor this student’s free speech. It will be interesting to see how big a hole they dig themselves.
The heritage… 60 years ago it got a 14 year old killed.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-emmett-till
… Because heritage?
http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/oakland-county/residents-outraged-by-offensive-flyers-in-southfield
Bolding mine.
Waiting for the white supremacists to speak up AGAINST white supremacy…
… Isn’t that supposed be how this get’s done?
The only thing more offensive than a bigot flying a confederate flag is a government official trying to ban it.
I look for the day when confederate flags are safely locked away in museums – in case we forget. But the way to get there is to convince people not coerce them.
Freedom of speech is allowing free speech on items that you don’t agree with. Any child of the 60s should understand this.
Ken Burns: The Civil War was about ‘slavery, slavery, slavery’
Please don’t tell me we are going to fight The War of Northern Aggression again.
The only Confederate flag that counts…
http://www.civilwar.si.edu/appomattox_images/l_towel.jpg
Flag of truce
This is half of what had once been a white linen dish towel that was used as a Confederate flag of truce at Appomattox. It was carried by a staff officer of General James Longstreet into the lines of General George Custer, a cavalry commander under General Philip Sheridan. General Robert E. Lee was requesting a suspension of fighting while he sought to learn the terms of surrender General Grant was proposing to offer. After the war, Sheridan presented the flag to Mrs. Custer in appreciation of the loyal service performed by her husband.
Division of Social History, Political History
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Behring Center
Gift of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Custer
Yay cultural heritage. Nothing says “I choose to identify my cultural heritage as a war to try to save the viability of human slavery” like the stars and bars. They want to display that? Their first amendment rights guarantee it. The school was wrong.
I do not agree with this at all. The school should be forced to name specifically which gang he belongs to so he can fight it. And then all of his friends can drive to school with Confederate flags on their pickups.