The School Board wants more time to consider a proposed ban on Confederate flags in county schools.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published February 11, 2004
[Times photo: Scot Keller]
Clifton Burney, 66, wants Pinellas schools to ban the rebel flag. "While I was in school they were still lynching people. They were still waving the Confederate flag," Burney said.
LARGO - No flags. No fights. No fracas. And no decision.
After recent conflicts over student displays of the Confederate flag in Tampa Bay area schools, Tuesday's Pinellas County School Board discussion on whether to ban the flag district-wide was relatively peaceful.
Reporters and television cameras nearly outnumbered the small group who showed up Tuesday morning to tell the School Board what they think about the issue.
Not a Confederate flag was in sight, and many who attended the meeting were African-Americans who said they supported School Board member Mary Brown's call for a ban.
St. Petersburg resident Clifton Burney, 66, told board members that students don't know the history of the flag and should not be allowed to wear it to school.
"While I was in school they were still lynching people. They were still waving the Confederate flag," Burney said. "I think it's incumbent upon you to be sensitive to the needs of all students."
The seven-member board discussed the flag for nearly an hour after Brown raised the issue during the board's regular Tuesday meeting, but took no action.
Brown, the first African-American to be elected to the School Board, said the district's dress code policy "needs strengthening" and should be more specific about what symbols should be allowed in school.
"To allow symbols onto our school grounds that hold historically negative sensitivity to any group of people shows disrespect," Brown said. "I am asking this board to deal with what type of environment is best for all students and what type of attire will support an environment of respect for all."
Under the district's dress code, students cannot wear "clothes or tattoos that show profanity, violence, sexually suggestive phrases or pictures." The district has never issued a specific ban on displaying the Confederate flag or any other symbol.
The same goes for Hillsborough County's school district. "There's no outright prohibition on the Confederate flag," said spokesman Mark Hart.
He said Hillsborough's dress code forbids anything that might cause a disruption within the school, but each principal has latitude to define what is disruptive.
Hart said he cannot recall the issue cropping up in Hillsborough County, a district that entails a much more diverse population of students, from both rural and urban schools.
"People are sleepwalking if they think that it's just a few African-Americans that have a problem with the Confederate flag," said Bilal Habeeb-ullah, founder of the African American Leadership Council of Clearwater.
Not so, said Sons of Confederate Veterans member Charles Pedrick. He said the board should ban all symbols in schools - including Christian crosses and Jewish Stars of David - or not ban anything at all.
Pedrick, 77, flies the Confederate flag in front of his Largo home and says that it is no different from flying the stars and stripes.
"We lost the war, but we were right," Pedrick said. "Is there anything at any point that the Confederate flag stood for that the American flag did not stand for?"
School Board member Nancy Bostock said students have a right to express their pride. She said she was concerned that a ban would infringe on students' First Amendment right to free speech.
"Are we now going to discriminate against students who are proud of their Southern heritage?" Bostock. "We can't pick and choose."
The School Board said Tuesday that it needs more time to decide on whether to change the district's student dress code.
Board members said they will seek the opinions of students on the issue in March before discussing the ban again. A decision on whether to ban the Confederate flag is likely to be made before the end of the school year.
School superintendent Howard Hinesley said individual school principals should decide whether student displays of the Confederate flag are disruptive. He agreed with Bostock that ban could raise serious questions about students' rights.
"Your right to free speech does not end when you come into the classroom," Hinesley said.
Controversy over the Confederate flag erupted about two weeks ago after a Tarpon Springs High School student was suspended for circulating an unapproved petition calling for a ban of student displays of the flag.
Also last week, Pasco County Schools officials suspended four students for raising a Confederate flag over Hudson High School. The students are accused of replacing the U.S. flag with a Confederate flag with the words "I ain't coming down" printed across it.
