CDR: thought police

[David Honig]

Oct 2, 2000 - 10:40 AM 

            Court Allows Suspension of
            Student for Drawing Pictures of
            Confederate Flag 
            The Associated Press

            WASHINGTON (AP) - A Kansas youth suspended from
            school for three days after he drew a picture of a
            Confederate flag lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.

            The court, without comment, turned away arguments that
            the suspension violated the youth's freedom of speech
            and other constitutionally protected rights. 

            T.J. West was a seventh-grader at Derby Middle School
            in Sedgwick, Kan., when in spring 1998 he made a
            4-by-6 inch sketch of the Confederate flag during a math
            class. West later told his assistant principal a friend had
            urged him to draw the flag, and that he knew what it was
            but not what it meant. 

            West also knew drawing the flag violated a "racial
            harassment and intimidation" policy the school district
            had adopted after incidents of racial tension in 1995.
            The policy banned, among other things, students from
            possessing "any written material, either printed or in
            their own handwriting, that is racially divisive or creates
            ill will or hatred." 

            Confederate flags were specifically listed as such
            material. 

            During the racial tensions at Derby High School and the
            middle school in 1995, at least one fight had broken out
            as a result of a student wearing a Confederate flag
            headband. 

            During that time, the Aryan Nation held a recruiting drive
            directly across the street from Derby High School and
            the Ku Klux Klan distributed literature to students near
            the high school. 

            West and his father challenged the boy's suspension
            from school, but a federal trial judge and the 10th U.S.
            Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the school district. 

            The appeals court, in its ruling last March, noted that
            West had been suspended earlier that school year for
            calling another student "blackie" and had been
            reminded at that time about the harassment and
            intimidation policy. 

            The case is West v. Derby Unified School District No.
            260, 99-2039. 

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAX5X89UDC.html
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