North Carolina school board rejects ban on Confederate flag
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina school board has voted not to ban the Confederate flag from school grounds, rejecting two pleas from a local chapter of the NAACP to establish the policy.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports the Orange County Schools Board of Education decided instead on Monday to establish an equity committee to advise the board on several issues, including symbolic speech. Board chairman Steven Halkiotis said board members will not tolerate hate speech, bullying or intimidation.
“We believe our principals are best equipped to monitor and respond to issues of bullying, harassment or other disruptive conduct...” the Board said in a release. “The Board and administration believe the best way to effect positive change in the behavior of students is through the programmatic steps it is taking and not by banning a particular symbol.”
The Northern Orange County NAACP had asked the board to ban the Confederate flag on school grounds during the board’s earlier meeting in February.
“To the NAACP, that includes the historical context of the Confederate flag to slavery, the Confederacy, the Civil War and Jim Crow,” NAACP President Patricia Clayton said in a letter to school board members. “For many, the flag is a racially inflammatory symbol, which is undeniably rooted in slavery and racism. Given OCS’ commitment to serve all students, the district should not allow the Confederate flag on its campuses.”
Latarndra Strong, a parent of an Orange High School student and co-founder of the Hate Free Schools Coalition, was shocked to see Confederate flags at her daughter’s school and provided a photo to CBS affiliate WNCN.
“A student had a flag on a pole on his truck as he entered into the school,” she told WNCN. “The first day I thought, this is weird. Second and third day, I said ‘I better go in and talk to the principal about it.’”
Shaniece Thorpe, a junior at Orange High School, said she doesn’t appreciate it when her fellow students use the Confederate flag to make themselves feel superior to her and other black students.
“It makes me feel isolated and distracts me,” she said. “... I have the same potential or more potential than the people who feel like I am belittled in my class.”