School's Ban on Confederate Flag Upheld

This from Mark Walsh at the School Law Blog:

A federal appeals court today upheld a prohibition on displaying the Confederate flag in a Tennessee high school that had experienced racial tensions.

"The facts in this case ... indicate that school officials could reasonably forecast that permitting students to wear clothing depicting the Confederate flag would cause disruptions to the school environment,'' said the unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati.

The decision in Barr v. LaFon upholds summary judgment in favor of the Blount County, Tenn., school district and administrators in a challenge to the prohibition by students "who would like to express their Southern heritage by wearing clothing depicting the Confederate flag at school."

The appeals court pointed to facts in the record about several racial incidents at William Blount High School, including an alleged physical altercation between black and white students at a basketball game in 2005, and several incidents of racist graffiti found in a boys' restroom, including one depicting a noose.

Lawyers for the students who challenged the district argued there was no evidence that Confederate flag symbols had caused disruptions at the school.

But the court said the racist graffiti "exemplifies how school officials reasonably concluded that the connection between the symbolism of the Confederate flag and racial tensions at the school meant that the Confederate flag would likely have a disruptive effect on the school."

This case on Confederate flags in the schools is not the same as one from another Tennessee school district that ended up in a mistrial last week because a federal district court jury could not reach a verdict. I briefly blogged on that case here
and here.

Jury Deadlocks in Stars and Bars Dress Code case

This from the Knoxville Tennessean:

Jury undecided over dress code

involving Confederate flag

KNOXVILLE — A federal court jury in Knoxville says it hasn't been able to reach a verdict over whether a school dress code banning the Confederate flag violated a student's free speech rights.

The judge told the panel to return today, and asked lawyers for the two sides to consider ways to resolve the dispute if the jury can't render a unanimous verdict.

Tommy DeFoe, 18, was suspended by Anderson County school officials more than 40 times for violating the dress code. He received his certificate of completion from the vocational school last fall.

School administrators feared DeFoe's Confederate flag shirts and belt buckle could inflame racial tensions.

The all-white jury deliberated for 10 hours Thursday before informing the judge they couldn't reach a unanimous decision.

DeFoe's lawsuit is the latest in a string of cases across the South since the 1990s challenging dress codes that banned Confederate flag apparel.

And this from OakRidger.com:

School officials:

Rebel flag suit more than a dress code issue;

funded ‘by outside sources’

References made to racial unrest in Clinton in the 1950s

CLINTON, Tenn. — Likening the case to the racial discord of the mid- to late 1950s in Anderson County, county school officials on Thursday night said this week's U.S. federal court hearing over a student's right to wear the Confederate flag symbol is being funded "by outside sources."

"Regardless of what you read there's a lot more to it than our enforcement of our dress code," John Burrell, Anderson County Board of Education chairman, said during the county school board's regular monthly meeting...

...According to a November 2006 story published in The Oak Ridger, DeFoe's lawsuit was filed by an attorney employed by the Black Mountain, N.C.-based Southern Legal Resource Center Inc.

"In 1956, an outsider, John Kasper, came in and created a problem," Stonecipher said, referring to the racial unrest in Clinton that resulted in the 1958 bombing of Clinton High School. "Then, in 2006, it's an outsider coming in looking for a landmark case."Kasper was among those who opposed the court-ordered desegregation of Clinton High School in August 1956....

KSN&C Backstory.

A tip of the hat to Brad Hughes @ KSBA.

School on trial for banning Confederate Flag in dress code

This from H-L:

Tenn. teen battles school's

Confederate flag ban

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. --Tommy DeFoe wore his Southern pride on his Confederate flag belt buckle Wednesday as he argued in federal court that a school dress code banning such items violated his free speech rights.

"I am fighting for my heritage and my rights as a Southerner and an American," said the lanky DeFoe, 18, during a break in the trial that started Monday in his lawsuit against the Anderson County School Board and several county education officials.

DeFoe says his great-great uncle served in the Confederate army and "died for the South" in the Civil War.

But heritage was not the issue for school officials in Anderson County, in East Tennessee not far from Knoxville, who suspended DeFoe more than 40 times for violating the dress code before he received his certificate of completion from the county vocational school last fall.

They feared DeFoe's Confederate flag shirts and belt buckle could inflame racial tensions and violence.

DeFoe's lawsuit is the latest in a string of cases across the South since the 1990s challenging dress codes that banned Confederate flag apparel: a prom gown in Kentucky, purses in Texas, T-shirts in Kentucky, South Carolina and Georgia.

...DeFoe's lawyer claims the issue is whether the school system can ban the Confederate flag, a symbol of racism to some that has been widely associated with the Ku Klux Klan, if it causes no substantial disruption...

Notes on the graphics:

A photo of the confederate flag hanging from the gallows - as seen by artist John Sims who thinks the Confederate flag is an example of "visual terrorism," and a symbol of a racist past.

Below is a photo of a note given to a black student at George Rogers Clark High School last September. The redacted note shows the Confederate flag being used as a symbol of the south. Also on the note is a sketched lynching and the phrases, "The South will rise again," and "I had a dream white power."

Spurrier takes a courageous and righteous stand

Steve Spurrier does not want to be a politician. But the USC football coach believes the state would be a better place to live if the Confederate battle flag were removed from the State House grounds.

This from The State.

Uproar hits Florida Confederate flag show

When artist John Sims sees the Confederate flag, he sees "visual terrorism," and a symbol of a racist past.

When Robert Hurst sees the flag, he is filled with pride as the descendant of a soldier who fought for the South during the Civil War.

Their differences have flared into a war of words, catching a local museum in the middle.

Hurst walked into the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science this past week and saw an exhibit by Sims, including a Confederate flag hung from a noose on a 13-foot gallows in a display titled "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag."

Hurst asked the museum to remove the display, along with 13 other pieces by Sims.

The museum, however, announced Friday it is standing by Sims' work, on display since Feb. 26, because it wants to inspire dialogue in the community about a symbol that engenders a diversity of strong responses.

This from Yahoo News: Story and photo from the Associated Press. This from the Kansas City Star.