A Washington state high school alleges that two 11th-grade students were wearing Confederate flags around their necks as an anti-gay statement, and had them both suspended for disrupting school and violating the dress code, KIRO 7 reports.
Tahoma High School officials say the two boys wore the flags in a common area of the building where around 50 kids were, and many of them got upset. A 10th grade student had been displaying a gay pride flag around school for the past two weeks, and a school spokesperson told KIRO 7 that the Confederate flags were used to protest against the gay pride flag.
"I can see where we wouldn't OK that - there's too many ethnic backgrounds that that could offend," said Tiki Scroggins, who was picking up her nephew from school when KIRO 7 approached her for comment. She said the Confederate flag is often seen as a symbol of slavery and racism. Supporters of the flag argue that it represents the South during the Civil War and Southern pride.
In school today, students were asked by their teachers if they felt the Confederate flag-wearers were utilizing their freedom of speech or simply being offensive.
"I see two different sides to it," Chad Blenz told KIRO 7. However, the students interviewed agreed that the school district's decision suspend the students wearing the offending flags was appropriate.
"You don't expect kids to show up with a Confederate flag on their back," said Coleman Wooten, a student in 12th grade at Tahoma who is reportedly friends with the two boys that school officials have declined to release the names of.
