Students suspended indefinitely for bringing Confederate flag to school
Two Long Island high school students have been suspended indefinitely after bringing a Confederate flag to school. According the Brother Gary Cregan, St. Anthony’s High School’s principal, the two seniors walked in with the flag draped around their shoulders during a sporting event.
“The African-American students who immediately saw it really exercised heroic restraint and fortunately a teacher immediately confiscated the flag and took the students out of the gym,” Cregan said.
The students were initially suspended for 10 days, but Cregan decided Tuesday they won’t be allowed back, Brown reported.
Cregan wrote a letter to parents saying the use of any symbols “designed to revive past injustices or to inflame discrimination or racial intolerance, is completely unacceptable and profoundly offensive,” Newsday reported.
Some feel that the students were exercising their right to free speech, but Cregan said there are limits. “I certainly think this particular symbol of hate falls in the category of something that should be excised from our culture,” Cregan told CBS New York.
The students haven’t said why they did it. The New York Civil Liberties Union is standing behind the action. It says all people should be able to express their views freely, even offensive ones.
Should the students have been suspended indefinitely? Or is the school violating their right to free speech?
Sound off below!