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Bloomington, Ind., superintendent bans Confederate flag

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Oct 27, 2016.

  1. franticscribe

    franticscribe Well-Known Member

    I agree with you that the Confederate battle flag is offensive. But we can't have rules allowing limitations on speech based on what Justin_Rice or franticscribe find offensive. What you or I find offensive is largely irrelevant. That's why the Supreme Court has attempted to create a practical rule that balances students rights to speak freely against the need to have an orderly school environment, without making a value judgement on the speech itself.
     
  2. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    It's not "offensiveness" that gets things banned from schools. It's "potential for disruption," which is not necessarily governed by morality, as much as we'd like it to be.
     
  3. Justin_Rice

    Justin_Rice Well-Known Member


    I agree with your larger point, except that I would say the Confederate Battle Flag - the flag of slavers, rebels and segregationists - falls within the bounds of a school banning things to maintain an orderly school environment.
     
  4. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    I don't think you grasp what this discussion is even about. Quit telling us what you think the flag represents and why you believe it offensive. We already know and, believe it or not, it's really not relevant to the issue.

    If the superintendent's grounds for allowing the rainbow flag while banning the Confederate flag is based on her making a "moral" judgment that one represents something better than the other, then she is acting unconstitutionally. Value judgments of content are not supposed to be part of the equation when making that decision, and have nothing to do with the grounds upon which courts have allowed such school bans in the past.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2016
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Which is so fucking stupid because it essentially permits the people who are offended to decide what is or is not protected speech.

    "Ban this or I will be disorderly!"
     
  6. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Especially in a high school! It's almost like we have different rules for people under 18 or something.
     
    Spartan Squad and doctorquant like this.
  7. franticscribe

    franticscribe Well-Known Member

    You keep coming back to your interpretation of the flag. Again, that's irrelevant. It's the potential disruption.

    Can this school ban it? Under current case law, absolutely. They allowed it. It apparently caused a substantial disruption. Now they can ban it. End of story.
     
  8. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Doesn't the idea that potential disruption could lead to a ban give power to those who would be offended, and act in a disruptive manner, to symbols that are not offensive?

    If a Black Lives Matter t-shirt cause white students to tease and bully an African-American student who wore it, is banning the shirt the proper response.

    If Muslim students were offended by a rainbow flag, and teased someone who displayed it on their backpack, and otherwise acted in a disruptive manner when seeing it, wold that be grounds to ban the rainbow flag?

    It seems that maybe these should be "teachable moments" and schools should learn how to deal with disruptive students.
     
  9. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm not sure if anyone has standing yet, but do you think that the blanket ban of the Confederate flag is constitutional, under the circumstances? The disruption was caused by a particular use of the flag - they draped themselves in it, right? Is wearing, say, a Dukes of Hazard T-shirt really disruptive?
     
  10. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    The answer you are looking for is, "Yes."

    It's total bullshit.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

  12. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Yes. Pretty much everything that happens in a school should involve "teachable moments."

    Like I said, as much as we'd like them to be, disruptions are not always rooted in what's moral or "right," especially when you're talking about shit-for-brains teenagers.

    There simply is no set of objective rules or morality one can use in these situations.
     
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