Students lift Confederate banner after schoolmates distribute gay pride flags

Students lift Confederate banner after schoolmates distribute gay pride flags

Trainees at a Missouri secondary school lifted the Confederate fight flag in their institution lunchroom to oppose classmates that distributed rainbow pride flags in support of LGBTQ rights.

The incident, which occurred Dec. 9 at West Plains High School, finished when educators stepped in and also removed the rebel flag, according to reports.

Pupils who had the smaller-sized rainbow flags attached to their knapsacks were informed to place them away. No added disciplinary activity was taken.

In a declaration, the college stated it was dealing with the episode as a teachable moment.

\" Rather than take care of this as a disciplinary issue, we chose to handle it as a discovering experience,\" a college spokesperson composed. \"Our hope is to instruct our trainees to appreciate each other and to appreciate different viewpoints on a variety of social problems.\"

The institution district recognized that the Confederate and also rainbow flags were purportedly \"utilized by some members of the teams to tease various other pupils.\"

The debate has triggered prevalent dispute on social media sites concerning freedom of speech and also bullying.

Reports state two or three male students that were unidentified held up the rebel flag in the senior area of the lunchroom.

In photos of the event, the pupils can be seen standing up the large rebel flag.

Social network articles about the case were widely shared and also included sharp, anti-gay beliefs.

One student's article read: \"If they can fly their queer flags, others can fly their rebel flags-- Butt hurt?\"

One more pupil uploaded: \"I believe it is a problem that we have a whole month dedicated to someone's sexuality and also only a day for experts. You can fly your LGBTQ flag much like I have the right to fly my American and\/or rebel flag.\"

The two trainees who dispersed the LGBTQ flags claimed they didn't mean to annoy anyone.

Among the trainees said she aided order 60 of the little banners to reveal uniformity with gay pupils that might have unsupportive moms and dads, revealing \"that they're not the only one.\"

Rose Schilmoeller, a 15-year-old sophomore, charged the rebel flag pupils of making use of \"anti-gay slurs versus her as well as her buddies,\" according to West Plains NBC associate KY3.

\" To us, it was similar to retaliation to people who were holding their own [satisfaction] flags,\" she informed the terminal in an interview. \"The worst part is that others were backing them up.\"

The circumstance supposedly came to be awkward sufficient that some pupils left the lunchroom and called their parents to take them residence.

\" The bottom line in this tale isn't even the flags-- it's the tremendous bullying issue,\" Rose claimed.

The Confederate battle flag, including a diagonal blue cross with celebrities, is widely seen by minority groups as a potent icon of enslavement and white preeminence in America.

Made by Southern secessionist William Porcher Miles in 1860, it was very first flown as the Civil War fight flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

The fight flag, nevertheless, was never embraced by the Confederate Congress, never ever flew over any state capitols throughout the Confederacy and also was never officially utilized by Confederate veterans groups.

The flag was reanimated by the resurgent Ku Klux Klan as well as utilized by Southern Dixiecrats throughout the 1948 presidential political election. Organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans have actually likewise taken on the flag as a sign of Southern heritage.

On Feb. 13, 1956, the Georgia state flag was transformed to include the Confederate fight emblem right into the style as a response to the Supreme Court ruling on institution desegregation.

In the late 1980s, black state legislators pushed to go down the state flag with the Confederate fight emblem and also restore its precursor, however stopped working.

In 1994, James Coleman of Atlanta sued versus then-Gov. Zell Miller and also the state of Georgia over the state flag. Miller had said he desired the Confederate emblem eliminated, however lawmakers wouldn't pass such legislation as well as the issue was gone down.