Recently, our student body found itself at the center of an age-old controversy.  Can the displaying of a symbol be banned as hate speech?  A few students displayed Confederate flags in their cars in the high school parking lot, and the school administration flexed their muscles and banned this activity. 

The administration presented a clear policy that bans symbols that could be taken as “offensive” or that “students don't fully understand.”

I am not necessarily happy that the flags are being paraded around, flying high behind cars leaving the parking lot after school, but I do know for certain that I don't agree with the administration's stance on the issue.

Students have expression rights under the Constitution

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees our rights to free speech, and as the Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines case in 1969, that restricting those rights, even in a school setting, is unconstitutional, as long as the student speech is not disruptive.

The Supreme Court also ruled in that case that First Amendment rights are available to teachers and students, subject to application in light of the special characteristics of the school environment.

Freedom of speech is defined as the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is used to denote not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.

The display of the Confederate flag is an act of imparting information or ideas and falls under the constitutional guarantees that protect free speech at school.

Symbols have multiple meanings

The Confederate flag stands for Southern succession from the North, and contrary to administrative belief, should not be specifically labeled as a hate symbol. Just as the Swastika stood as a Pagan symbol for fertility before the Nazi Party overtook Germany, the Ku Klux Klan effectively corrupted the Confederate flag, attempting to make it a symbol for their own benefit of racial hate. To African-Americans, the Confederate battle flag is a symbol of racism and oppression.

To its defenders, the same flag is a symbol of valor against overwhelming odds on behalf of a noble but hopeless cause.  Mackubin T. Owens, editor of the Ashland University newspaper, said, “the Confederate battle flag has become a mirror for America. Reflecting on this requires that we avoid the twin extremes of either romanticizing the South or demonizing it.” The Confederate flag even flies over the state capital of South Carolina.
           

Furthermore, if the Confederate flag is a symbol our students fail to understand, maybe the administrations time would be better spent reworking classroom curriculum to ensure that the symbol is well understood from all possible perspectives and not just as white Americans.

Because the flags aren't being brought into school and don't interfere with school time or present clear danger to the school or students in school, it is clearly not the school's responsibility to limit the rights of students in this venue. 
              

The students displaying this symbol aren't disruptive and do not impinge upon the rights of other students. In such circumstances, the conduct of these students is within protection of the free speech clause of the first amendment and the due process clause of the fourteenth. In my opinion, the school administration should consider rights of students and freedoms protected by the First Amendment before rashly limiting student rights.