Reb, White and Blue dress banned from the prom
Teenager barred from prom for Confederate-inspired dress sues
Jacqueline Duty designed her prom dress over four years. It celebrated her American heritage with its red, white and blue colors and her Southern heritage with a Confederate Battle Flag. Although students were allowed to wear the Rebel Flag in school she was not allowed to attend the prom in her homemade dress.
School leaders, who had heard about Duty’s plans to wear the Confederate-inspired sequined gown, wouldn’t allow her to enter the prom or even leave her vehicle, her lawyers say.
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Now Duty is suing the school district in U.S. District Court in Lexington, saying the school district and administrators violated her First Amendment right to free speech and her right to celebrate her heritage. She also is suing for defamation, false imprisonment and assault.
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Her lawyer said Duty lost many scholarships because she was portrayed as a racist after the incident. Duty’s mother added that her daughter graduated near the top of her class in May.
Principal Sean Howard called Duty the night before the prom and told her not to wear the dress. Lacking another prom dress she wore her homemade one with the hope that administrators would reconsider.
Howard, the principal, and two police officers met her outside the school, according to the lawsuit.
“Howard intimidated (Duty) by physically striking the vehicle in which she was sitting,” the lawsuit said.
Duty knows that some people find the Confederate battle flag offensive but doesn’t share that opinion. She views the flag as a part of her heritage, a heritage that she is very proud of.
The lawsuit says that after the prom, school officials made students wearing Confederate symbols change or remove the items even though the symbols were not creating any disruption…
The school’s dress code prohibits clothing with suggestive, vulgar, or inappropriate language or pictures. Why was the flag appropriate before the prom but not during and after? Why is it inappropriate at all if it causes no disturbance in the school environment? It seems obvious that the dress was the catalyst. Why? Because it was prominently placed and proudly worn?
The school has created a problem where none existed, all in the name of political correctness. In their effort to prevent an expression that might have offended somebody they themselves have acted as offenders.
(Tip credit to Bumper)
http://www.slrc-csa.org/letters/rebflagdress.htmThe sad part of this is people at my school wear Confederate flag shirts and hats everyday to school and there isn’t a word said to them.
Hating the South seems like a distraction from the devastation of Africa and discontinuing affirmative action in the US. My son stayed with a Kurdish family in a cave in Turkey and even they were concerned about the South. Southern heritage has been labeled as pro-slavery while little attention is given to those countries that still practice slavery today.
My great-grandfather was an officer in the Confederacy and very active in the reconstruction of the South. Dealing with the huge death toll, orphans, poverty and building a civil society that was not dependent on slavery consumed his time. Authoritive education, religion and punitive regulations were imposed on the South, non-confrontation mannerism and hellfire religon florished. Although he was an elected official, founded a still-active newspaper and was a state judge, you will never read a word regarding my grandfather’s opinion on the Civil war.
The South has since followed the path of an occupied country leading to a civilized society, accomplished by humanely protecting people from the law as well as enforcing it. It seems unfortunate that this historical accomplishment will be lost to Southern people as well as the world. Crediting reconstruction would go futher in fighting tyranny in Iraq and racism; than eradicating Southern history and claiming that racists won.
The South still has the nations worst schools, highest enlisted and greatest poverty. The consequences of the years of authoritive occupation in the South did not end the problems. It just made people forget their history while waving a flag.
I can understand why some might find the Confederate flag to be offesnive, I can also understand why others have pride iin it.
The flag represents two very different things to each of them. But to be ‘offended’ by a flag is, in my opinion, rather silly.
I wonder if this same school allows black students to wear ‘Public Enemy’ T-shirts. They were a fairly racist rap group.
The PC crap has to stop some where as it is simply to easy to offend.
Wow, a real brave principal with two cops cops strikes a student’s car. What a jackass.
My great-grandfather was an officer in the Confederacy and very active in the reconstruction of the South. Dealing with the huge death toll, orphans, poverty and building a civil society that was not dependent on slavery consumed his time.
Not dependent on slavery…but certainly on Jim Crow laws. And, tell me, how many black orphans did he resettle…or did they even count?
The South has since followed the path of an occupied country leading to a civilized society, accomplished by humanely protecting people from the law as well as enforcing it.
*cough* Seems that in the days of the Civil War Movement, there were more Suth’nurs barring the schoolhouse door than trying to usher black kids into it.
It seems unfortunate that this historical accomplishment will be lost to Southern people as well as the world.
Insofar as racial problems go, the “Southern people” who civilized the South for the most part weren’t white. And the white people who civilized the South weren’t Southern.
The South still has the nations worst schools, highest enlisted and greatest poverty.
Right, and it’s all the fault of those blue-bellied Devils from up north. Never mind that the immigrants from the British Isles who settled the South were already predisposed toward military enlistment and fire-and-brimstone excesses.
Your post is as full of weepy victimhood as anything I could read on a left-wing blog.
And I wouldn’t have let that girl wear a Confederate flag dress to the prom, either.
how many black orphans did he resettle…or did they even count?
I don’t know how many but, certainly they counted. One black teenager was arrested for stealing a pig. Rather than sentence him to prison, he sentenced him to work on the farm of the man he stole the pig from. Even after his sentence was up he stayed at the farm and when the farmer died he inherited the farm. This is a matter of public record.
Insofar as racial problems go, the “Southern people” who civilized the South for the most part weren’t white. And the white people who civilized the South weren’t Southern.
You are an ignorant person filled with hate. You are the reason people turn against one another, when they have more to gain by working together. Perhaps you have the same hopeless beliefs about all people. You’re wrong.
And I wouldn’t have let that girl wear a Confederate flag dress to the prom, either.
me either, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to keep the Confederate flag flying if it’s viewed as being associated with slavery. For the Confederates who were rebuilding the South, it was the last thing they wanted.
The laws protecting black were strickly enforced, it was a dangerous and violent error. Even in the years following the war violence was present. His own son was seen among a group of teens burning a black church who locals claimed to have guns. He ran and never went home again because he knew his father would put him in prison. I did speak to his son as an elderly man, I know that he regretted his decision.
The high school I went to was Robert E. Lee HS. The mascot is a rebel (in a CSA uniform). They’ve been trying to get people to not fly the CSA flag at football games, but it’s been a pain for them. They managed to get the actual red white and blue flags out of the student section. So someone made a maroon and gray one. I’ll have to ask Mom and Dad if they’re still cracking down on the CSA flag.
I’m just wondering how long until some idiot decides to get offended and sue the school district. I mean, y’know, the majority of the students are probably minorities, and the majority of the football team was definitely black.
*shakes her head*
I wrote, “Insofar as racial problems go, the ‘Southern people’ who civilized the South for the most part weren’t white. And the white people who civilized the South weren’t Southern.”
swp wrote, “You are an ignorant person filled with hate. You are the reason people turn against one another, when they have more to gain by working together. Perhaps you have the same hopeless beliefs about all people. You’re wrong.”
Why, thank you. Coming from someone who actually defends the wearing of the Confederate flag and whines about Southern “oppression” by Northerners, that’s a compliment.
I defend everything I wrote above. The South’s wounds are largely, if not completely, self-inflicted: by having built its economy on the backs of other human beings. And yes, the whites who tried to change it were by and large from the North, from abolitionists like John Brown to the three young men in the 1960s who were murdered by Klansmen.
Damn it, the Civil War is going on a century and a half old, and everybody who was there, or even married to someone who was there, is dead now. Let it go already. The poor-me act has worn so thin you can see through it.
To say that the civil war is over is for sure a shortsided comment by reginleif. It is not over as long as you have people Civil rights and liberties stepped on by the government and people.
Oh and Reginleif before you call me a southerner I was born in a northern state and am frankly tired of being told the civil war was about slavery. I know when I was in High School we where taught it was about states rights and the desire for the southern states to leave the union and the northern states not wanting to let them succeed.
I know when I was in High School we where [sic] taught it was about states rights and the desire for the southern states to leave the union and the northern states not wanting to let them succeed [sic, unless that’s a Freudian slip].
And everything you were taught in school was the $DEITY’s honest truth, eh?
If it weren’t for slavery, do you think the red herring of “state’s rights” would even have come up?
I’m a libertarian, and as such hardly hostile to the idea that government should be decentralized. But let’s stop pretending the Confederacy took its stand on principle of any kind, shall we? They rebelled to protect slavery, because slavery was THE driver of the Southern economy. Which is why, after Abolition, the region went into the toilet.
Granted, there were plenty of hypocrites up North who were profiteering off the “triangular trade,” including members of John Brown’s own family. And Abraham Lincoln was hardly a shining example of racial benevolence ready-made for the P.C. era — he left behind his fair share of writings expressing his belief in the “inferiority” of blacks to whites.
And if you want to argue about modern politicians from, I’m embarrassed to say, the Northeast stepping on certain Constitutional liberties such as the right to bear arms, the sanctity of private property, and absolute freedom of speech, I’ll back you up on that.
But if the South had not refused to give up human ownership, the Civil War would not have happened. Period.
And the cities in the South that have decided to look forward, not backward — such as Atlanta and Charlotte — are the ones that are prospering. No, it’s not because they’re full of “damnyankees”; AFAIK, the Yankees moved down there after those areas decided to put the past to bed and move on. I suggest the rest of you do the same.
HOmer, the Civil War *was* about states’ rights: It was about the right of the states to secede.
I don’t think slavery would have ended without the Civil War because, it’s alive and well all over the world today. I don’t think segregation would have stopped without the Civil Rights movement. Black people will not see academic and economic freedom in this country or any other unless we continue the work. The problems that resulted from slavery are a national issue and simply blaming the South doesn’t fix it.
This principal did not attend to the small issue of Confederate flags on t-shirts and became aggressive about the prom dress. He should have never allowed the flag and he should have diplomatically assigned kids research on Jim Crow who violated that rule, in addition to dentention. Historic flags belong on paper and BTW Atlanta still flies under a Confederate flag.
http://www.africana.com/articles/daily/index_20010828.asp
Instead of teaching kids to think and understand the consequences of dysfunctional societies, in our country and others, the Civil War is a game played in school clubs. Imagine reenactiing Hiroshima. Kids need a clear understanding of how this impacts people today and the broad responsibility should include the entire country.
Some of you are excusing the principal’s actions simply because the item he objected to was a symbol of the Confederacy. Take a pause from the Civil War and think of this same situation in a different context. Say she was wearing a necklace with a cross on it - a family heirloom given to her by her grandmother. Say she is an atheist who was wearing that piece of jewelry solely as a tribute to her heritage. Would the principal have been justified in barring that symbol from the dance? After all, there are many people who’s forefathers were subjugated and harmed by the actions of the Church and there are many now who see the cross as an offensive symbol.
Jim, I think that comparison is kinda overboard. While I would be the first to agree that the various established Christian churches have persecuted many innocent folks in their ~1,700-year history (not to be confused with the ~2,000-year history of Christianity itself), I would hardly say that the Church’s raison d’etre was the oppression of nonbelievers.
By contrast, slavery was the rock upon which the Confederacy was founded. Had the Union not insisted that slavery end, would the South have seceded?
I don’t think slavery would have ended without the Civil War because, it’s alive and well all over the world today.
That’s kind of a non sequitur. I have no idea how the Civil War could have had any effect on the faraway cultures, primarily Arab, that still endorse slavery. At that time, the U.S. was not even close to a global power.
The problems that resulted from slavery are a national issue and simply blaming the South doesn’t fix it.
Sadly, the problems resulting from slavery that are still with us are really in the hands of the African-American community to fix. Bill Cosby’s angry denunciation of modern “ghetto” culture was right on target.
The issue at hand is not whether white Southerners, or any region or any subset of Caucasians, for that matter, can fix such problems. The issue at hand is that the plaints over the South’s “victimization” ring about as true as do the recent insistence of certain Germans that they were the “true” victims of WWII. And if we’re going to insist that American blacks pick themselves and dust off the ghosts of slavery, I don’t think it’s too much to insist that the white South do the same w/r/t its sense of wounded pride over the Civil War.
I’m sorry if you misinterpreted my earlier words as a demonization of the entire South. I happen to enjoy visiting that area, and in fact will be meeting up with a friend in Atlanta in a few weeks.
My impressions of it as a New Englander who did not visit it until adulthood have been largely positive, and I get irked to hear friends and acquaintances up here dismiss it in snobbish and elitist terms.
On the other hand, I really do think that the clinging to the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern-ness, if that’s a word, hinders rather than helps the South. If it’s truly a symbol of the South, why do Southern blacks, even the most traditional-minded ones with the deepest residential roots (if you will), not fly it? They’re as key to the South as white folks are.
That wasn’t my point, Reginleif. The point is that the cross as a symbol is as offensive to some people as the battle flag of the Confederacy is to other people. Would the principal have been justified in banning a cross (worn for secular, not religious, reasons) because it might offend somebody?
Jim, I understand your point fully, but I still think you’re comparing apples and oranges.
While there are any number of people who do not like Christians or Christianity — and I live in Boston, so I’ve met many — I have yet to meet anyone who actually objects to anyone else wearing a cross. Religious conservatives might find it distasteful if someone who’s an atheist or agnostic wears it as a “fashion accessory,” but I have yet to hear them actually express outrage and offense over such. If it were an heirloom, as in your example, I’m guessing many of them would be more inclined to praise the young woman for honoring her grandmother’s memory enough to wear it in spite of her nonbelief.
There was that rather bone-headed decision in France to ban all symbols of religion in the schools, but it did not specifically focus on crosses as symbols of oppression.
A better example would be a leftist student who comes in wearing a T-shirt bearing a hammer and sickle. Would I support the principal’s decision to ban the wearing of that shirt? You bet I would. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an endorsement of a murderous ideology, just as a T-shirt with a swastika would be, and as such it doesn’t belong in a school.
eginleif the Valkyrie
That is because you view those symbols differently then do many other people. Just because they offend some one is no reason to not permit them. This Country needs to replace some of those sensitivity classes with Deal with it classes. Some one is going to get there feelings hurt, some one is not going to like something, If I want to wear a Swastika that is my choice Perhaps I am Buddhist or Hindi, did you know that the Swastika is a religious symbol that we use rather often. Can you tell me the difference between a swastika and sauvastika?
Did you know that the Finnish military used as late as the end of ww2
And the American army used it as well. What if I was honoring my great grand father who shed is blood and lost his life in ww1. The swastika was on symbol of one of the
American army regiments.
Even Native Americans used the symbol. It has been around longer than Christianity and up until the Nazi party it was symbol of life and good fortune. Maybe I still see it that way. May be I choose to see it for the way it was seen before something bad happened to it.
So the Southern Cross is not as old as the swastika, but it too has several meanings and neither you the principle or the Bleeping president have a right to tell me what something means to me. If some one gets offended that is their problem and they need to deal with it like adults. If they dont want to live in a place where people are allowed to think for them selves then they can move to Cuba. Take away their eyes they would be offended by the darkness, take away their hearing they would be offended by the silence. You can�t stop it, deal with it. Educate. All Prejudice is based in ignorance and none of us are with out guilt.
The Cross of St. Andrew, which appears on the Confederate Battle Flag, is an old Christian symbol. A white one appears on the traditional flag of Scotland.
Sounds like many of you should read one, if not both, of these books: The Real Lincoln, by Thomas DiLorenzo, and When In The Course Of Human Events, by Charles Adams. Both are very well written and researched books that dispell many of the prevailing myths about the South, the war between the states, Lincoln and Reconstruction. Both are positively illuminating.
The problem I have is that if this girl would have worn a dress made with the Afgan flag you people who are against the CSA flag would be defending her….
“The victor writes the history..’
“The problem I have is that if this girl would have worn a dress made with the Afgan flag you people who are against the CSA flag would be defending her….”
I worry about anyone who says something like this, often it means they’ve lumped all “you people” who disagree into the idiot category and turn their ears off, but I’ll put in my two cents anyways…
In general I dont like the Confederacy because it supported slavery, and because most people would’ve immediately looked down upon me for my non-white half. But that doesnt mean that the Confederacy was formed mainly to oppress the slaves. And to be fair, the US, which I’m rather fond of, had a long period of allowing slavery before that time, and a pretty long period of racism even after. Ending slavery is a big deal to us now, but the reasons for southern succession were more complex, such as their belief that the federal goverment up north wasn’t representing their needs well enough (sound familiar?).
I really dont see the beef with liberals; I hug trees, hate Bush, support gay marriage, even though they creep me out a bit, and think the government should shut the hell up when it comes to what we say or wear. Because I’d rather risk getting offended once in a while than let some appointed bureaucrat decide who’s allowed to say what.
LISTEN UP!!!
I’ve posted the answer to end this argument before. I’m about to do it again.
No flag may be worn, nor burned, nor have any emblem or words printed on it. It may not be used on any disposable item (paper towels, napkins, paper plates, etc.
THERE!!! THAT’S YOUR ANSWER!!! It doesn’t have anything to do with the confederacy. She’d be arrested wearing a 50-star flag, or any other American flag! Part of the flag act, one of the most enforced laws we ever passed. (One of the few I don’t disagree with.)
Won’t work, Jet. The courts have decided that it’s your right to do pretty much whatever you want to the flag. In any case the Flag Act applies only to the Ensign itself.
this is just a piece of history “fact” for Reginleif ,The united states flag flew over slavery 207 years before the confederate states existed so I guess we shouldn’t display that either. You really need an educated history lesson. As for the northern people who want to talk so badly of the south and our heritage , Well from a true southerner, keep your butts up north then and quit coming to South because you dislike it so much!! Funny how soon as vacation time comes around you all want to head south! Wonder why that is??
I think it is just pathetic how they treat anything to do with the osuth now days. I live in south geaogia but come form the north and here everything is more or less handed to the blacks in the name of making the past right so much so that the rights of the whites or any other race goes second. Here we have so many blacks who have never worked a day in their life all because the goverment will give them aid if they have kids so they have 3 or 4 kids and some of those kids have kids way before they even become of age.
ok i wont get started on that i will say i think this young lady was very brave and should be proud of her herritage i hope she wins the suit and i would love to see a photo of her dress to see how it turned out and to see the talent that must have went into making the dress to begin with if nothing more she should also be proud of being able to make such a dress along with her herriage.
Lee aka: Southerenboy @ www.southerenboycentral.com
@ bettina: Could not have said it better myself.
If they heard about it, and were concerned, they should have contacted her immediately, not give her like 12 hours to get something new, 8 of which were probably delegated to sleep. That is like four hours to go and buy/make a new dress, and that is just not time enough. I think that it is damn rude to say “Don’t wear that” when one has worked for four damn years to make a dress.
I don’t see a problem with the confederate flag because I am a redneck and I support the flag very much. This flag is hung up all over my bedroom and in my car. If I had a chance I would where a confederate flag prom dress without a second thought. I think that the ones that don’t like the confederate flags are the ignorant ones and not us rednecks. I was raised with this flag and I will die with this flag and if anyone has a problem with it they can kiss my rear end.