http://eagnews.org/school-apologizes-to-student-after-kicking-her-out-over-confederate-flags/

School apologizes to student after kicking her out over Confederate flags

NORTH FORT MEYERS, Fla. – A Florida student who came to school on the first day with two Confederate flags waiving from the back of her pickup was issued an apology after school officials sent her home.

North Fort Meyers High School student Sky Hunter was greeted by an assistant principal and a security guard Monday when she pulled into school’s parking lot this week on her first day back to class. The junior had three flags flying from the back of her pickup – one American flag and two Confederate battle flags – and the school officials took issue with the latter, WPTV reports.

“He came out and told me that I had to leave and I asked him why and he said the American flag was fine, but I couldn’t fly my two Confederate flags,” Hunter said.

The teen pressed the assistant principal for a better explanation, but didn’t really receive one.

“He told me parking my truck there, it was my vehicle, my responsibility to get rid of the flags and I told him it’s my vehicle, it’s my responsibility, I should be able to fly what I like on them,” Hunter told the news site.

Hunter eventually complied and returned home to have her father drop her back off to school. WPTV tried repeatedly to contact school officials about the episode throughout the day, but never hear back.

School officials eventually called the family to apologize and said Hunter is free to park at school with all three flags.

“District policy indicates that if there is an offending flag, shirt or something similar – and it causes a disruption – then the principal can ask to have it taken down, or send the student home,” according to NBC 2.

A Lee County School District spokesperson, however, told the news site there was no indication Hunter’s flags caused a problem. The ordeal likely stemmed from administrators who are overly sensitive to the Confederate flag debate that’s raged in school districts and municipalities this summer after a racially motivated church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina that left nine blacks dead, the spokesperson told NBC 2.

Hunter’s father, John Hunter, said the decision to send his daughter home over the flags didn’t make sense, regardless of the reasoning.

“It’s a heritage, and I don’t understand why she can’t fly them, and I don’t understand what’s going on,” he told WPTV.

Hunter returned to school Tuesday with her flags flying, though one of them was bent while in the school parking lot and she reported it to school officials, NBC 2 reports.

The teen said officials told her they think the flags could become a problem, but continued to allow her to display them at school, for now.

Hunter said the incident wouldn’t have been a big deal, if it wasn’t for how officials confronted her with their concerns.

“He was like, ‘you gotta go,'” Hunter told NBC 2. “I asked, ‘why can’t I be here?’ He said the flags can’t be here.”

“I wasn’t expected to be told to leave right on the spot especially in the rude manner I was asked,” she told WPTV.

Hunter also said she believes all American have the basic right to display the Confederate flag, regardless of whether it offends people or not.

“I think everyone should be allowed to fly them, not only because of the history but because we have the freedom to do so,” she said.

From Around The Web

Sent from my iPhone