Confederate Flag: offensive or not?

Great Debates
1

I’m a high school teacher in a south Texas town (though I’m not from around here). We regularly write up students with inappropriate clothing: crop-top shirts, too-mini-skirts, sleeveless shirts for boys, transparent clothing, seeing underwear above pants/skirt waistline. Yesterday, I sent a boy to the office who was wearing a “Playboy” turtleneck (it said “Playboy” on the collar and had their rabbit head logo on it), since I knew they were not allowed.

Then today, I saw a boy with a hoodie that had the confederate flag big and bold on the front. I nudged the teacher whose room he walked in to, and pointed out the flag. The teacher didn’t think that was on the banned list (which isn’t a list, but a broad description; more on that later). I IMed the principal, and he said that Confederate flags weren’t banned. Hmmm…

Looking up the Student Code of Conduct, it states this as one of its paragraphs on clothing requriements in the dress code section:

Blockquote

Articles of clothing with pictures, emblems, symbols, slogans, or writings that
are lewd, vulgar, obscene, contain sexual innuendoes, depict sexual or
violent acts, or cause disruption or distraction to the educational
process is prohibited. Articles of clothing that advertise or depict
tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, drugs, controlled substances, or other
outlawed items are also prohibited.

Blockquote

From that, it’s obvious why the Playboy rabbit logo is banned. Myself, I find the Confederate flag offensive (I’m white, but I have a few relatives of African slave descent). But the closest I could really apply my offense to is “emblems… that… depict violent acts”.

Do you think, looking at the applicable paragraph, that Confederate wear should be banned on any basis?

2

Disruption and distraction would be my first choice. Kid may or may not realize it, but he’s advocating for owing black people as property, not to mention treason.

3

I would think you would be closer if you invoked the “cause disruption or distraction to the educational process”, but it certainly isn’t a slam-dunk. You certainly could use that if someone were to get up in his face about being a racist prick; you probably could if you noticed 3 kids in the corner pointing at him and commenting (positive or negative).

4

Much like the definition of obscenity, you’re at the whim of community standards. If your community doesn’t have an issue with the symbol, you’re going to get exactly nowhere on the ‘disruption and distraction’ line.

5

This. When my kids were little I gave them shirts with beer logos and tattoo shop ads. They were totally inoffensive to me, but my kids knew they couldn’t wear them to school, and explained to me why.

6

Yeah, I would be 100% fine with a general school rule that explicitly bans display of the Confederate flag. However given what you’ve quoted I think it would be something that is “arguably against the rules as written” but not clearly and unambiguously so. It sounds like a potential political land mine for a school administrator to deal with in South Texas, also.

7

To strictly invoke that provision (assuming there might be legal scrutiny later) you might have to show that disruption or distraction actually occurred.

I’m not a fan of idjits wearing any Confederate regalia, but it seems to be that invoking “distracting” clothing covers an awful lot of ground. “I couldn’t concentrate on my math quiz because the girl in front of me was wearing a purple top with red ninjas on it!” “That guy is wearing chinos with the pant leg bottoms four inches off the top of his shoes!! Eurrggh!”

8

I might write him up on the same day that I’m wearing my “The higher the pickup truck, the lower the IQ” T-shirt :wink:

I think this is a potentially incendiary situation – one that I would be extremely circumspect about as I decided how/whether to proceed.

9

In Texas? Isn’t that rag required?

I doubt you are going to get much support from Admin if you try to write the kid up for the hoodie.

10

Beat me to it. Maybe that’s next on Abbott’s list.

11

Melton v. Young

Does your school have a history of racial tension? Does the surrounding community?

In any case, I think some lessons on the flag and its resurgence during the civil rights era would be apropos.

12

It should go without saying in this day and age that the Confederate Flag is offensive. Far more so than a shirt with a playboy logo.

13

As some of you stated, trying to raise the racist card in Texas would be tricky. The student in question wasn’t mine. If a student did wear something with the Confederate flag in my class, I think I should be within my rights to ask them to remove/cover it during my class.

Also, seeing that wasn’t any disruption in the class, it would fail in that category. We don’t have a high percentage of black students, so I guess at the very least it doesn’t directly offend some.

With that same argument, I could wear a Nazi logo, arguing that we don’t have many Jewish students… :hushed:

14

When he comes in your class make him turn it inside out!

15

This sounds like one of those things that you are best banning without giving any sort of detailed explanation. The moment you say, “We are banning it because…(it distracts people) or (it offends a racial group) or (it could cause a ruckus)” you are opening a can of worms for all kinds of rules-lawyering and double-standards accusations.

16

Especially if you don’t have a high percentage of black students, the message you’re sending them is "We know that many of your classmates and your teachers think that you’re subhuman. We also know that some of them are perfectly ok with treating you violently and that they affirmatively and proudly advocate those ideas whenever they can so that by the time you’ve finished high school, there will be even more than when you started.

We support them. Not you. Never you.

Remember to dress for Spirit Day next Friday and Go Peccaries!!!"

17

I’m not sure that “offend” is the right measure, although it’s one you’ve brought up a few times. Courts have not said that offensive things can be banned in schools, I believe; rather, it’s gotta be more specific.

Unless your school is 100% white, a symbol of white supremacy is likely to disrupt the learning of nonwhite students. There doesn’t need to be disruption in one particular class. Rather, the issue is one that should be raised on a schoolwide level.

It might be interesting to shoot an email to the Texas NAACP to get their take on it.

18

I think that’s a great idea.

But you also may want to reach out to the Texas ACLU.

It might be worth figuring out who will be with you and who might be “against” you.

19

Even if a school were 100% white, couldn’t a school just ban it on grounds of it sending the wrong message? Otherwise, like someone else pointed out abovethread, someone could wear Nazi stuff if there were no Jewish (or Slavic, or gay, or mentally handicapped) students.

20

It is offensive and I will not tolerate it in my zone of influence.