Confederate Flag On Elk Grove Student's Backpack Draws Uproar
ELK GROVE (CBS13) — There's outrage over a Snapchat video taken by an upset student at Elk Grove High.
The video shows another student carrying a backpack with a patch of the Confederate flag.
A local mom is now calling on the district to be more vigilant in enforcing school policies.
"I'm not surprised, unfortunately; it's just sad, and it's another reminder of America's ugly past," said Sonia Lewis.
Lewis was outraged after her son showed her the video, which was taken by his friend at Elk Grove High.
The video shows a student on campus carrying a backpack with a patch of the Confederate flag.
"I'm a history teacher, so when the North and South were fighting, it was a flag to unite the Southern states under the auspice of slavery," Lewis added.
Lewis says she called the Elk Grove Unified School District to report the video and says she was told the student in question may not be part of their district.
But the district confirmed to CBS13 that the student does attend Elk Grove High.
CBS13 spoke to the district on Wednesday and asked about its school policies and restrictions.
"Should the site administration predict that there will be a disruption on campus due to some kind of dress code violation, then they will act accordingly," said district spokeswoman Xanthi Pinkerton.
She says if there's no issue with what a student is wearing at school, there's usually no action taken against them.
"As far as I know, there has been no disruption on campus," Pinkerton said.
Sacramento City Unified School District has the same policy. Administrators there say as long as there's no disruption in the classroom or among students, there's nothing the school can do.
With recent events like the rally that turned violent in Charlottesville, a spokesman for Sac City Unified is weighing in.
"If we saw something like that in our school district we would definitely use all the authority we have to address that issue," said Alex Barrios.
Lewis says that's not enough.
She says the line between hate speech and hate crimes is blurred, and she wants school districts like Elk Grove Unified to establish boundaries before things get out of hand.
"My goal and my wish for the future is for my kid's kids to not have to deal with this kind of stuff," Lewis concluded.
According to Elk Grove Unified, students involved in the Snapchat video were all spoken, to and the district wouldn't say if any action was taken against the student with the Confederate flag.
