I just found this and don’t have much time for commentary. But initial thoughts are:
Since when is entrance to a High School gym a First Amendment right?
Sounds like she couldn’t pay tuition.
Great, a crapshoot. So she could win and now some #@$! in Kentucky can wear a swastika, or Hezbollah dress to senior prom. Maybe someone, someday, could sucessfully lobby for a “Holocaust” Senior Class Prom theme; because she’s proud of her German heritage. Considering how the flag is largely interpreted, the fact that not wearing it is not a life or death circumstance, maybe this “college student” should have used a bit of critical thinking, regardless of Constitutional statutes.
I can’t believe someone would confer a degree on this (explitive deleted).
I’m curious if this intellectual wonderkind has considered the effect the loss of 50 thousand dollars will have on the students she leaves behind in the shipwreck.
If it’s worth much, the school district will most likely have an insurance policy. Most of the districts I’ve come across have between $1000.00 to $2500.00 deductible. So, the school would have to pay the deductible and their rates could possibly go up as well. Just a little food for thought there.
Here’s what gets me about this whole thing:
Umm, so she knew they wouldn’t let her wear the dress but she did so anyway. Nice.
I’m all about the first ammendment, but don’t all schools have some sort of dress code?
I mean, we couldn’t wear hoochie skirts, bikini tops or shirts with offensive language on them to school functions and everyone seemed to be okay with that. No one is FORCED to go to prom or anything, jeez.
That said, someone -really- needs to talk to this girl about red being SO not her color. Good loooord.
Well, there’s a pretty big difference between the symbolism of a swasticka and a Confederate Flag (Pretty awesome design I thought, btw). One’s about genocide, the other’s about a group of people who considered themselves a different nation…for a time. A couple states still incorporate the design in their state flags, so it’s clearly something more than a symobl equating to “enslave the darkies.”
I think hers was an insensitive gesture simply because she didn’t know or didn’t care that the CF is offensive to a lot of folks–if for no other reason than displaying it proudly is possibly the most anti-American statement one can make.
The school mishandled it too–they should have let her peers express their approval or disapproval of her views to her directly, unless they anticipated a breach of the peace as a result of the dress. And I could easily see how that might have been a concern.
It looks like the dress is sequined, and the article says “self-designed.” Looks like she put a lot of work into that dress. (I’ve never sewn sequined material, but word is that it’s a bitch to work with). It must have been disappointing to be told that she couldn’t wear it, after all the work she put into it (and expense—sequined material isn’t cheap).
I’m of two minds about this. I know that some people consider the stars and bars flag to be part of the history or heritage, and they claim that they’re not flaming racists. On the other hand, most people associate it with a painful part of history and you can see why. Though, up until 2001, the Georgia state flag had a small picture of the stars and bars flag. The flag was then changed due to political pressure, and according to one friend I have from Georgia, a lot of Georgians were pissed off about it (and he didn’t think they were all flaming racists).
So, oh, I don’t know. My friend from Georgia says that the flag is interpreted and used in different ways by different people, so it’s not like it’s unanimously regarded as a racist symbol. I don’t know either way, since I’ve never lived in the South.
The stars and bars is nowhere depicted on this young woman’s dress. The stars and bars (as seen here: http://www.usflag.org/confederate.stars.and.bars.html) features a horizontal red stripe over a horizontal white strip on the right with a horizontal red stripe running the length of the bottom, and a field of blue with seven white stars in the upper left hand corner.
Ms. Duty’s dress is fashioned after either the confederate naval jack or the confederate battle flag, which is the square version of the rectangular jack. These flags depict a blue St. Andrew’s cross with thirteen stars thereon over a field of red. Both, but generally the jack, are commonly referred to as the “rebel flag” or “confederate flag.” Don’t even get me started on the “southern cross,” it ain’t Alabama, think more Australia.
The addition of the confederate battle flag to most southern states’ flags came in the wake of the Brown decision and has little to do with herritage and much to do with protest.
I think the rebel flag as such can be seen as akin to a swastika because it has been taken up by such hateful groups as the Klan and skinheads. Just as an once innocent word can become hateful and derrogitory (see discussions of the word “gay” elsewhere), so too can a symbol.
all this from a white a southerner of the Alabama/Georgia variety.
I think the dress is kinda pretty. And I have a thing against dress codes.
Still, she was warned that she would not be allowed in the prom with the dress. And what, exactly, is the point she’s trying to make with this lawsuit (besides there is such a thing as too much blusher)?
I’m kind of surprised the dress caused such a flap (couldn’t resist). Hell, people stick that flag on trucks up here in the People’s Republic of MA; and back when I lived just across the Patomic from the Old Dominion, I didn’t have to go far to see them proudly flying over people’s homes. I always figured people liked to wave it with a kind of “Sweet Home Alabama” defiance; not so much an act of hatred as a refusal to equate all Southern Heritage with slavery. I’m not defending the practice, necessarily, it just seems to me the Confederate flag cannot easily be equated to hate speech, and attempting to ban its display is just asking for trouble, from a legal standpoint.
I think she should have been allowed to wear the dress, but only because I think that public schools shouldn’t have dress codes. Americans who are over 18 have the right to wear swastikas, “fuck Bush” t-shirts, and low-rise pants – I’d rather public schools got students ready to live in a society which fully embraces the right to free expression, no matter how stupid or awful the opinions being expressed.
Of course, once she was actually at the prom, they should have named her Homecoming Queen and then dumped pig blood on her.
Gotta go with the OP here. Since when is the prom covered by the First Amendment? I hope some high-powered lawyers shove that lawsuit down her throat. That’ll teach her to pay attention in her American Government class.
On the one hand, I’m all about expressing yourself and making wild, antiauthority statements when you’re young.
On the other hand . . . it was damn rude of her to put the school in the position she put them in. What would you’ve done if you were principal? I’d bet that if they let her wear it somebody else would be suing right now.
Well, is the Prom protected by the 1st Amendment? In this case, it’s an activity at a public school, so I’m not certain myself where the boundaries ought to be drawn. Others have bucked school dress codes and worn “Queer and Proud” (or something along those lines) on their T-shirts. They also have sued schools for making them take the shirts off. There’s no question some students (and teachers) find open displays of homosexuality morally repugnant, so we can’t simply argue that because something is offensive, it should be banned.
Really, I’m not taking a position on this, other than to say I’m not so sure this young lady has no recourse.
I think this may be a little misguided on the girl’s part as well. Kentucky was a border state with pockets of both strong Union and Confederate support. Most of the Confederate support was in the Western part of the state and in the Bluegrass region. Most of the Appalachian region in the far eastern part of the state (on the WV border), where Ms. Duty is located was strong Union territory. So, her ancestors might well have been for the Union.
I realize that a lot of people see the stars and bars as representing racism, but not everyone sees it that way. I’ll take the young lady’s word that for her it was about her heritage.
Anyway it’s not like she was wrapping herself in the stars and bars. Her dress was *inspired * by the flag, and that’s it. Do we really want to start banning things that only have some vague visual connection to something we find offensive?
