'I am proud of my heritage': Former student defends Confederate flag

Rasp

Senior Editor
'I am proud of my heritage': Former student defends Confederate flag

Former Anderson County High School student Tom DeFoe testified today that history and family stories about an ancestor inspired him to wear clothing containing Confederate battle flag emblems to school.

"I am proud of my heritage," he said. "And I am proud to be a Southerner. I don't see any reason that anybody can't wear what they are proud of."

He was testifying in a federal court lawsuit alleging that his civil rights were violated on occasions when school officials suspended him or made him turn a T-shirt inside out.

He will face cross-examination later today by attorneys representing the Anderson County school board, which is defending its dress code
policy that specifically bans the Confederate flag.

An all-white jury is hearing the case before U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan.

That the jury is all-white was not the result of selection strategy by either side. There were no black people in the small pool of people from which a panel was selected.

Of that pool, two people who expressed support for display of the controversial flag were booted off. As with all jury trials, which side did the kicking is kept under wraps from the public.

Also rejected was a member of a Civil War club and a former Alabama educator who acknowledged the flag "can inflame" but added she didn't "really know why blacks see it as a racist symbol."

Anderson County School Board Chairman John S. Burrell testified Monday that the school system's dress code has been in effect for some 26 years. It contained specific bans, including the display of Confederate flags, references to Malcolm X or the Ku Klux Klan and logos for cigarettes or booze but later
was changed to a generalized prohibition on the display of "racial or ethnic slurs or symbols, gang affiliations, vulgar, subversive or sexually suggestive language or images" and products students cannot legally buy.

The Confederate flag, he said, remained among the banned displays.

DeFoe ran afoul of the dress code in the fall of 2006, first, when he sported a T-shirt with the flag and, second, when he wore a belt buckle displaying it. In each instance, he admits he refused to either remove or cover the flag and was suspended as a result.

DeFoe contends, via attorney Van R. Irion, that he is a descendant of a Confederate soldier and was expressing pride in his heritage by cladding himself in Rebel flag wear. The school system cannot silence him because others might view the flag differently, Irion insists.

"The school board tells Mr. DeFoe he should be ashamed of who he is," Irion told jurors in opening statements.

Attorney Arthur F. Knight III, who represents Anderson Cou
nty school system officials, counters that it doesn't matter what DeFoe intended to say with his clothing choice.

"We fully understand the Confederate flag is not a racist symbol to everybody," Knight told jurors. "But there are others who â┚¬¦ consider that to be a racist symbol."
 
I'd like to know how this one slugged it out. Anyone?

KGC rider
 
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Confederate flag dress code on trial in federal court

It will be up to an all-white jury to decide if the free speech rights of Tom Defoe, then a senior at Anderson County High School, were violated by the ban on a flag that to some symbolize Southern heritage and to others racial hate.

There were no black jurors in the pool summoned to appear today in U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan’s courtroom. During jury selection, two people who expressed support of the display of the flag were booted off the panel as was a member of a Civil War club and an Alabama educator who acknowledged the flag “can inflame"� others but “I don’t really know why blacks see it as a racist symbol."�

Irion told jurors in opening statements today that there was no racial strife at Anderson County High School, where there are only a handful of minority students, and no proof display of the Confederate flag was “disruptive"� to the educational process.

“The ban is not about preventing disruption in the school,"� Irion said. “It is about preventing certain students from being offended."�
 
“The ban is not about preventing disruption in the school,” Irion said. “It is about preventing certain students from being offended.”

Wow! Rasp, this really hits the nail on the hammer with an accurate call on the situation as it amounts to all over the country and in every objection they make about whitie.

I heard the membership fee for the NAACP was $10 but that was years ago. Sure is a great way to send out the spies to every point on the compass. Most Dixie and Confederate organisations charge $50 and upward--what a shame. Who's trying to win the hardest? Ah, that is the battle and not the cash--ha, ha.

Gary
 
Tenn. student's Confederate flag suit thrown out

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A federal judge has thrown out a former Tennessee student’s free-speech lawsuit against a school dress code that banned Confederate flag clothing.

Nearly a year after a jury failed to reach a verdict in Tommy Defoe’s case, U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan has ruled against a retrial.

The judge said there was undisputed evidence of racial threats against minorities at Anderson County High School and school officials “reasonably forecastedâ┚¬ that clothing such as Defoe’s Confederate flag T-shirt and belt buckle would cause
a “material and substantial disruption to the school environment.“

Defoe’s lawyers say Varlan’s ruling, which was based on a federal appeals decision in a similar case from Blount County, will likely be appealed as well.
 
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