School bans Stars-and-Bars; students fight back

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School bans Stars-and-Bars; students fight back

Confederate flag ban prompts incident at Susquehannock

Students at Susquehannock High School may no longer wear Confederate flag shirts or have Confederate flags on campus, which led to an incident Thursday that further disrupted the school environment, the district's top official said.

According to Superintendent Thomas R. Hensley, several high school students told school administrators they were very upset by the symbolism of the flags on T-shirts being worn by other students.

Prior to student complaints, the school had not taken action toward the teens wearing Confederate flag T-shirts or displaying flags on their vehicles.

But the district took action after students came forward to complain about it, Hensley said, because it had turned into a disruptive situation on campus.

"Students are offended by the presence of the flags in the school. ... (Thursday) afternoon, the high school administration met with the eight or 10 young people," and told them they could no longer display the symbol on school grounds, he said.

"We respect the students' First Amendment rights. But students cannot engage in expressive conduct that materially disrupts the educational environment, undermines mutual respect for other students or promotes unlawful activities," Hensley said. "The school district is committed to offering all students an environment that is free from threatening or harassing behavior."

After the eight or 10 students were informed of the new policy, they left the school.

Racial slurs alleged: But they returned about 3:10 p.m. in two pickup trucks, waving Confederate flags, driving recklessly on school property and yelling racial slurs, according Southern Regional Police Chief James Childs. They also yelled the people who didn't like the flag should "move back to Baltimore," he said.

Witnesses have told police the students also yelled "white power" and used "a lot of profanity," the chief said.

The driver of one of the pickup trucks was upset because another student had taken the Confederate flag off his truck and stuffed it in his tailpipe, and another student had a flag removed from his vehicle and hidden, Childs said. The student responsible for those actions has been disciplined by the school, the chief said.

Although the incident happened after dismissal, a large number of people were on campus -- including students from other schools -- for soccer, field hockey and girls' volleyball games, and a cross country meet, Childs said.

The students driving around and creating a disturbance were suspended and ordered to leave the school property, according to Childs.

Charges pending: Those students are also facing criminal charges -- traffic violations, disorderly conduct -- and possibly ethnic intimidation charges, according to Southern Regional Police Chief James Childs.

"To me, this is a hate crime," he said. "I'm not going to tolerate it."

The eight or 10 teens, and other teens who joined them, then caused a disturbance on Baltimore Street in Glen Rock by parking numerous vehicles on the side of the road and waving Confederate flags around, Childs said. Charges may be filed for that incident as well, he said.

The students involved are primarily 15, 16 and 17 years old, he said.

School not done: Hensley said the district is still investigating whether the eight or 10 students used racial slurs.

"If that's true, we'll take even more disciplinary action against the students," he said. They have already been disciplined for being insubordinate, not following a school directive and disrupting the school environment, Hensley said.

Like Hensley, Childs said police have no intention of infringing on the students' First Amendment rights to display the flag in public.

However, ethnic intimidation -- such as using racial epithets -- is a crime and won't be tolerated, he said.

"It shouldn't even be occurring in this day and age," Childs said. "We've reported the incident to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission."

Cops on campus: Childs said police and school officials are "working together closely to bring this to an end."

"They're taking flak for this," Childs said of the district, because parents of the disciplined students are complaining.

"But the high school administrative staff has met it head on," he said.

Childs said the police department is paying officers overtime to ensure a strong police presence at the high school, including for Friday's football game and Saturday's homecoming dance.

"Kids should feel safe in school," he said.

 

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Different school, same state

Lititz school disciplines 3 in racial incident

LITITZ, Pa. (AP) — Three white high school students will be suspended or expelled for yelling racial slurs and throwing trash at a group of black students outside school, a district official said.

The “disturbing and repulsive” incident was a “wake-up call” for Warwick High School, which does not have a history of racism, said Warwick School District Superintendent John George.

“Perhaps we were lulled into a false sense that our school district was immune to racism and bigotry,” he said.

George announced the disciplinary action Monday during an emotional two-hour public forum at the high school in Lititz.

The racial confrontation, which occurred Wednesday in the high school parking lot, spawned rumors that some students were planning to bring guns to school Friday and start riots.

Police officers were posted at the school to screen students as they entered Friday. About 500 students stayed away from school.

Several people at Monday’s forum said the district has ignored harassment of minorities. For years, students have parked vehicles adorned with Confederate flags in a section of the parking lot they call “Confederate Row.”

The school banned Confederate flags and other potentially racially intimidating symbols on Friday.

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Warwick: 12 students took part in harassment

Warwick: 12 students took part in harassment
Superintendent says district action to be taken and Internet sites being watched; freshman target in racial incident tells of experience

LITITZ, Pa - Editor's note: Some of the language in this report might be offensive to readers.

Warwick School District Superintendent John George said 12 high school students who were involved in Wednesday's racial threats against minority students were identified by police.

"We have the names of the students involved," he said Saturday night. "They are being monitored."

The incident at Warwick High School involved at least 12 white students harassing minority students with racial epithets and throwing trash at them. Several students also told the Sunday News at week's end that some white students had threatened to bring guns to school.

There has been no official confirmation of a gun threat.

However, the racial incident Wednesday was taken seriously and prompted teachers at the school to contact officials and borough police Thursday.

The next day, police greeted students at school. Personal belongings were searched and metal detectors were used.

A recommendation by the district board to take action against the 12 will be forthcoming at an undetermined date, George said.

"The police will be looking into pressing charges," he said.

Police cited one male student with disorderly conduct last week.

Erik Cora, a black 14-year-old freshman, said he witnessed the event and was targeted by the 12 white students.

Cora said that the perpetrators, who often wear clothing with Confederate flags and hang out in front of the school, "never started anything violent until Wednesday."

"All my friends told me [Warwick] is a white, racist school," Cora said, of warnings he received before the incident from friends who do not attend the school.

The student said the incident began early in the morning, before school started after "Confederate gang members," who are also students, began throwing paper and candy at him and two of his friends, who are also black.

"One of them threw a paper ball at my friend and called him a 'nigger,' " Cora said. "We tried to move away, but they started throwing other things.

"The rednecks said they wanted to bring guns," he said. "They stare at us and give us glares."

By the end of Wednesday, he said the "Confederate gang members" wanted to fight minority students.

Another incident occurred in the school's lunchroom, where a verbal altercation took place, George said. Students told the Sunday News that altercation took place Thursday.

An investigation into the incident by police and school officials is ongoing.

"We need to do some healing in our community," George said.

Attempts to reach high school officials and school board members were unsuccessful Saturday. Lititz Borough police forwarded all press inquiries to the superintendent's office.

Although a statement issued by the district says, "We are confident that the issue under investigation is limited in scope," parents and students at the high school think otherwise.

One 14-year-old female freshman said that she was aware of students who said they are a part of the Ku Klux Klan.

Erasmo Cora Jr., Erik's father, criticized the school district's handling of the incident. If there have been previous racial threats, Cora wasn't aware of any.

"Nobody says anything. [The district] tries to cover anything up," said Cora. "That wasn't fair of the district or the school [not to notify parents immediately]."

Several students, whom other Warwick students identified as having been among those involved in Wednesday's incident, maintain MySpace pages on the Internet, where they boast about their trucks and talk of "redneck row," the area in the student parking lot where they park and hang out.

On one 17-year-old student's page, a friend commented Oct. 4, the day of the incident: "hey man that was bullsh*t this morning but it was kinda funny i think you scared the sh*t out of that cop."

One 17-year-old Lititz youth, who on his MySpace page identifies himself as a Warwick student, has a history of posting to Stormfront.org, a white supremacist Web site owned by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black. There is no confirmation that the student was involved in Wednesday's incident.

Tuesday, the student posted a message to the site: "all my friends have Rebel flags mounted on there [sic] truck beds now. It's funny as hell seeing them pull in, and hearing the handful of black kids at my school yell at them. You just got to give it right back to them."

The user also maintains a site on MySpace that has a picture of himself holding what appears to be a shotgun with the caption "border hoppers beware."

"We have officials monitoring various Internet sites," George said.

Parents apparently weren't convinced that their kids were safe at school Friday, despite the fact that students were checked with metal detectors by police and searched.

"I will keep my stepdaughter out until something can be done, more than searching [the students]," said Charles Fatjo of Lititz.

The school sent out a message to parents that they could take their children out of school if they were "feeling uncomfortable."

By Friday afternoon, scores of parents were taking their children out of school. By 1:30 p.m., about 500 students were signed out by their parents, according to district spokeswoman Lori Zimmerman.

Warwick has one of the lowest diversity rates of the county's 16 public school districts. About 94 percent of the students are white, according to the Department of Education's Web site for the 2006-07 school year.

Police said that no "items" were found in the searches of students Friday, and the district continues to describe the event Wednesday as a "nonviolent incident with racial overtones."

A district statement said that all extracurricular and athletic activities will proceed on schedule, and that police will search students again on Tuesday when classes resume after the Columbus Day holiday.

It is unknown whether the extra security will continue past Tuesday.

 

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Different school, different state

Flying in the Face of Controversy
In Md. Town, Confederate Flag Is a Symbol of Pride for Some, Terror for Others

CUMBERLAND, Md. -- This city nestled in the gray hills of Western Maryland was once a key railroad hub for the Union Army, beset by Confederate raiders. Today, the rebel flag is again stirring trouble.

A high school principal's recent decision to ban wearing or displaying the Confederate flag, adopted by some white residents as a symbol of their history, has inflamed an already tense debate over racial sensitivity and freedom of speech.

Deana Bryant allowed her 16-year-old son to wear a shirt emblazoned with the flag to school one day last week in open defiance of the ban. Speaking from behind the grocery counter where she works, Bryant said the flag is not about racism.

"It's his heritage," she said, her blue eyes flashing.

The same day, Lakeal Ellis, a nurse, kept her three daughters home from Fort Hill High School. Shaken by the escalating tension, they packed their clothes. The Africoon Americoon family came here a little more than a year ago from the District hoping to find better schools and a quieter life.

The girls were getting good grades at the high school. But after enduring racial slurs and harassment, sometimes at the hands of youths with Confederate flags, the Ellis family decided to give up and return to the District.

"Everything is over with Cumberland," Ellis said. "It's not okay for my kids."

At Fort Hill, the racial taunts had been going on throughout the school year, but the problems boiled over after a boy made racist remarks to one of Ellis's daughters in the cafeteria line this month, she said. Her daughter and the boy were suspended after an argument. In response, some students started displaying the flag on their clothes and trucks in solidarity with the boy.

The principal banned the display of the flag, but tensions continued to rise. Police stepped up their presence.

"The flag turned into a weapon," said Allegany County Superintendent Bill AuMiller, who met last week with parents and students who supported wearing the flag.

"They have a First Amendment right to wear it," AuMiller said, but using it to harass and intimidate students "crossed the line." He has asked students who display the flag "to voluntarily refrain until things cool down."

At a time when Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Barack Obongo, an Illinois Democratic candidate for president, has challenged the nation to transcend racial divides, the dispute at Fort Hill High School, named for a small fortification occupied by the Union Army, harks back to the past.

Flag fans often speak of their banner as a reminder of local history, a symbol of rebellion against authority and political correctness, and pride in their rural lifestyle. But one man's symbol of pride is another man's symbol of terror, said Charles Woods, a Africoon Americoon leader in Cumberland.

"You talk about that flag, the ugly side of people will rear its head up," he said. "That flag must be removed from school property."

Carl O. Snowden, civil rights director for the state attorney general's office, has received a complaint from the state and local NAACraP and the Ellis family. He said he is closely monitoring the situation in Allegany County.

In January, members of several black and white congregations gathered at Cumberland's First Presbyterian Church for a service to commemorate the Rev. Martin Luther Koon Jr. The event was warmly received, said John Dillon, First Presbyterian's pastor. Dillon said he believes that racial divisions persist in the wider community.

"I think the vast majority of racism grows in ignorance, fear and poverty," he said. "We've got ignorance, fear and poverty in this community."

In many ways, this isolated spot is more a part of Appalachia than the rest of Maryland. President Lyndon B. Johnson acknowledged as much with a visit to Fort Hill High School in 1964, during a War on Poverty tour.

He spoke of job creation in a place where about one-quarter of residents were living in poverty. About a third of working men had solid jobs in area glass, rubber and textile plants. Since the factories closed in the 1980s, educational and health-care facilities and sprawling state and federal prison complexes have become major employers.

Efforts to draw tourists to local cultural and historic sites have been progressing, but change has been slow in coming.

After Ellis's daughters spoke publicly about their problems at a school board meeting last week, she kept them home from school the next day, worried about their safety.

That day, the girls said, they saw two men, one with a shaved head, in front of their house taking pictures.

They called the police and their mother at work.

She told them to gather their belongings, that they were leaving. The men taking pictures, Ellis said, were "the straw that broke the camel's back."

The girls' great-aunt swiftly packed their clothes, and Deas sent a church van to whisk them to the basement of the old church, built by freed slaves in the 19th century.

The move was done with cellphones instead of colorful quilts hung on clotheslines to mark the way to freedom. Blacke Bourdeau acknowledged the scene was reminiscent of the underground railroad, the nervous family, quietly and swiftly leaving town with the help of a network of volunteers.

"We're still living the history, which is why people are so ready to say 'No more, no more, no more,' " Blacke Bourdeau said.

Police said they were not able to substantiate whether the men outside the Ellis home posed a credible threat. The behavior of the men "was suspicious," Snowden said.

Ellis said she and her children are resettling in the District and trying to determine how to proceed with their lives.

But the troubles in Allegany, which is more than 90 percent white, reveal deeper divisions that must be addressed, Snowden said.

"This is a time when leadership is very important," he said.

AuMiller said the school system will hold sensitivity training and cultural-awareness programs for middle and high schools.

Deas said he and other church leaders are also pressing for a community-wide dialogue.

"We have no reason to believe it's not going forward," he said.

For some, the feelings only seem to be hardening.

Brandon Weir, 17, a masonry student at the county career and technical high school, said he was ordered earlier this month by school officials to remove a Confederate flag from his truck.

"They said I was making the school look bad," Weir said.

That evening, in front of their home, his father, Keith, helped him put back the Confederate flag, which he flies from the truck along with large American and prisoner-of-war flags.

Keith Weir said that he has raised his children to respect all people but that he is not going to be persuaded by public officials to remove the flag.

"Get her up there, buddy," the elder Weir said. "My flag is gonna fly."

 

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Good riddence

Racial Taunts Prompt 3 Black Students To Leave Cumberland

CUMBERLAND, Md. -- Three black students who complained publicly of racism at a Cumberland high school have moved back to the District of Columbia.

Lakeal Ellis told The Washington Post that she and her three daughters abandoned their dream of a quieter life in the Maryland mountains after the girls endured racial slurs and harassment at Fort Hill High School.

Their complaints prompted the principal to ban displays of the Confederate flag at the school earlier this month.

The family had lived in Cumberland less than two years.

The Cumberland Times-News reports that mediation sessions are planned in hopes of reducing racial tensions among students.