Can and should, and the 5th Circuit upheld a Texas school’s ban. But “can” and “should” doesn’t always mean will.
It is the symbol of a racist slave state, and flaunting it sends a clear message. So, yes, it is VERY offensive to me.
Can you ban stuff for “sending the wrong message”? I know you can ban stuff for promoting illegal activities or for disrupting the learning environment. While the confederate flag was a symbol of treason, it’d be a hard sell to say that its current manifestation is explicitly promoting illegal activities in the same way that, say, a 420 shirt is doing. It’s much easier to say that it’s disrupting the learning environment, and that’s much easier to say if you have students who are not white and who are viewing a white supremacist symbol.
Even in an 100% white school, it’s likely that not all the students are down with white supremacy. But the presence of nonwhite students makes serious disruption by white supremacy much likelier.
An interesting idea, contacting the NAACP. Though not being a “CP” might not get me far, I can still see what they say.
Treat it exactly the same way you would a student wearing a Nazi flag. And if the dress code right now isn’t clear that either would be prohibited, it should be changed so that it is clear.
EDIT: Come to think of it, this is your out: Ask an administrator whether wearing a Nazi flag is a dress code violation, and under what grounds. Preferably do this via email, so there’s a record of their answer. Then use exactly the same justification for any action you take in this case.
While I think flying, displaying or wearing the Confederate flag should make someone the subject of ridicule, I don’t agree with banning something just because someone, or many someones, find it offensive. To me, the Constitution doesn’t cease to exist just because someone walks into a school building. If it causes actual disruption, fine, or if the kid uses it to intimidate others, punish the behavior, but I think a better course is to win the war of ideals and show people why it is offensive, rather than a ban which ends up glorifying wearing it as a act of defiance.
How does one wear a nazi-style swastika in a non-intimidating fashion? Do you style it with a scrunchie?
Forgive me, I thought we were talking about the Confederate Flag, since the topic is Confederate Flag: offensive or not?. Perhaps I missed something.
Why does your previous post apply to the Confederate flag but not to the swastika?
The Confederate Flag, like it or not, has a very different history in this country than the swastika. We are less than a year since it ceased to be part of a state flag.
That thought did cross my mind (as evidenced by my sarcastic comment about Nazi-wear). However, my principal does have a heavy Southern accent, so he might say something about Southern “heritage”. I do rather need my job, so stirring the pot on this issue might not be a great idea.
Maybe during some staff meeting, where we can submit anonymous questions, I can submit, “If students can’t wear Nazi flags, why is the Confederate flag OK?”
We’ll see how it goes.
So your argument is that it’s okay to have a blanket ban on certain hate symbols but not on other hate symbols? Or are you arguing that the Confederate flag is not a hate symbol at all?
The states who changed their flags to include the Confederate flag design did so to intentionally intimidate African-Americans. In my mind, displaying it is equivalent to displaying a Nazi flag to intimidate Jewish people.
We are one month since a bust of a Klan leader was removed from the Tennessee state capitol. Does that mean Klan hoods should be allowed in schools, too?
The swastika has a proven history of causing actual disruption, which is what the Courts have used as a standard since the Tinker decision in 1969. In those places where the school districts show that it has a proven history of causing actual disruption, like in the case you linked above, fine. OP states nothing of the sort about her school. You may not like the Confederate Flag, I certainly don’t, but can you honestly claim it causes immediate disruption whenever and wherever it is shown in public?
You have every right to feel that way. I feel a very similar way with the “All Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter” and Thin Blue Line flags and posters in response to Black Lives Matter. Doesn’t mean that there should be a prior restraint on displaying it.
I think this is a very intentional misrepresentation of what I have been arguing.
It is a reasonable assumption that the Confederate flag may create a disruptive, hostile, and/or unsafe environment, yes. A primary responsibility of a school is to create a safe, stable environment for its students. “Let’s allow the hate symbol and wait and see if anything bad happens” is not good policy, and some of the greatest harm it can do is quiet and insidious, much like racism itself,
You can feel this way. Its not the standard set out by the Court. Let me know when podunk republican school administrators feel the same way and ban Black Lives Matter and other opinions that they feel are disruptive and hostile.
The students wearing it are wearing it to intimidate other students.
And, apparently, they have the support of the administration and others who support their right to threaten violence.