Confederate Flags in Schools
Few iconic images have caused more controversy in American culture than that of the Confederate Battle Flag. Created out of necessity, because the "stars and bars" flag of the Confederacy resembled the U.S. flag too closely to differentiate in the haze of battle, the Confederate Battle Flag has been hailed as a symbol of southern heritage by its proponents, and as a symbol of hatred by its opponents. The First Amendment allows Americans the right to fly the flag at home, but whether that protection extends to students in school remains a question unsettled in U.S. courts.
Other People Are Reading
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"Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District"
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The standard for what constitutes acceptable free speech in schools was set in the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision, "Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District." In "Tinker," three public school students in Des Moines, Iowa, were suspended from school for wearing black armbands in protest of the war in Vietnam. The school district argued that by wearing the arm bands, the three students caused a substantial disruption of the school environment. The Supreme Court ruled that the students were not disruptive, nor did their protest impinge upon the rights of others, and therefore their right to wear the arm bands was protected under the First Amendment.
School Policy
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Using the "substantial disruption" standard, it is up to individual school districts to set a policy regarding the display of the Confederate Flag by its students. For a school district to ban the flag, school officials must be able to reasonably forecast that wearing or displaying the Confederate Flag will lead to a substantial disruption, according to Vanderbilt University's First Amendment Center. As "Tinker" established, a claim of substantial disruption must be validated with past examples, and cannot be claimed based solely on conjecture.
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"West v. Derby Unified School District No. 260"
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A 2000 decision from the 10th U.S. Circuit of Court of Appeals in "West v. Derby Unified School District No. 260" affirmed the decision by the school district in Sedgwick County, Kansas, to suspend a student for drawing the Confederate Flag on his notebook. Due to racial tensions between black and white students, the school district had adopted a "Racial Harassment and Intimidation" policy in 1995 that prohibited the Confederate Flag in schools. Because of the previous racial tension, the school district was able to show proof that the flag would cause a substantial disruption if permitted on campus. This standard of proof was enough to satisfy the courts, and permit the school district's ban of the flag.
"Sypniewski v. Warren Hills Regional Board of Education"
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Thomas Sypniewski was suspended three days from Warren Hills Regional High School for wearing a Jeff Foxworthy T-shirt bearing jokes from Mr. Foxworthy's famous routine "You might be a redneck if..." The term redneck was termed inappropriate under the school's racial harassment policy after a series of violent and disruptive events led the school to ban anything "that is racially divisive or creates ill will or hatred." The courts determined the part of the policy that included material that "creates ill will" unconstitutional because, interpreted broadly, too much free speech could create ill will. However, the rest of the policy was found constitutional only because of that particular school's previous history of racial conflict. The court stated, that without those incidents, the policy would have been unconstitutional under the First Amendment. This decision indicates that any school wishing to ban the Confederate Flag by instituting a racial harassment policy can only do so if the school carefully documents previous racial tensions at the school.
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References
- Washburn School of Law: "West v. Derby Unified School District No. 260"
- Cornell School of Law: "Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District"
- First Amendment Center: Confederate Flags in Public Schools: Teach the Controversy
- Media Institute: Court Strikes One Provision of School Racial Harassment Policy
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
