SouthernN'Proud
Southern Discomfort
I have been following this situation closely. As a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who also happens to live in a district where the high school our daughter will soon attend has as their mascot the Rebel, I am keenly following it. Our SCV camp is preparing for the pending controversy to defend the Rebel name on our school. The high school in the following press release is located fairly close to here, and is embroiled in the name change battle. This incident is one of the key events leading to the attempt by a second generation of Yankee invaders to try and conquer Dixie...this time on a virtual battlefield.
Yes, it's that involved.
I personally don't care what your feelings about the battle flag are. I do challenge you to stop and think though. Would you want this happening in your town, instigated by people who live hundreds or thousands of miles away?
If you value your individual rights as a citizen, better think this over. It could be you next.
God bless Dixie!
Yes, it's that involved.
I personally don't care what your feelings about the battle flag are. I do challenge you to stop and think though. Would you want this happening in your town, instigated by people who live hundreds or thousands of miles away?
The Southern Legal Resource Center
News Release
For Immediate Release: Thursday, March 2, 2006
Blount County school board, school officials sued over ban on Confederate flag
KNOXVILLE, TN – Three high school students and their parents are suing the Blount County School Board and two school officials in connection with the ban on Confederate symbols currently in effect there. The suit will be filed today at the federal courthouse in Knoxville.
The suit charges that the students’ constitutional rights were violated between May of 2005 and January of 2006, when they were subjected to disciplinary action for wearing items of clothing bearing the Confederate flag. The action taken against the students, as well as the ban on Confederate symbols itself, violates their First Amendment rights of free speech. The disciplinary action taken against them also violates Fourteenth Amendment principles of equal protection and due process, the suit alleges.
Knoxville Attorney Val Irion is acting as counsel for the students and their families, supported by the Southern Legal Resource Center of Black Mountain, North Carolina. The SLRC, as it is known, is a legal organization that specializes in civil rights cases involving Southern heritage and culture issues.
“In a school system that supposedly prizes diversity and allows students to wear and display all manner of ethnic and cultural symbols, these kids were discriminated against simply for taking pride in their own ancestry,” said Roger McCredie, the SLRC’s Executive Director.
On February 10, Irion sent a letter to William Blount Principal Steve Lafon, with copies to the school board, seeking a review of the school’s policy. He received no reply. “That means the taxpayers of Knox County now are going to have to fund a lawsuit that’s been made necessary by their refusal even to discuss this matter.”
Earlier this week the SLRC settled a case out of court on behalf of its client Jacqueline Duty, a Kentucky student who was barred from her senior prom for wearing a, evening dress patterned after the Confederate flag. That case in turn was based on another SLRC victory, Castorina v. Madison County Schools, in which an appellate court struck down a school board’s ban on Confederate symbols. The Federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, where the Castorina case was heard, includes Tennessee, McCredie noted. “The Blount County School Board’s legal counsel must surely be aware of that,” McCredie said.
Irion will act as lead attorney in the case, with SLRC Chief Trial Counsel Kirk D. Lyons acting as co-counsel, McCredie said.
If you value your individual rights as a citizen, better think this over. It could be you next.
God bless Dixie!