Every student is allowed to present interests as the school year goes on; however, when these “interests” present themselves as offensive to others, an issue arises. Last year many students were seen carrying around Confederate flags for no reason except to do so, but on Martin Luther King Day, carrying around a Confederate flag has a different meaning. It is the school’s job to make sure all students feel welcome; therefore, the school should ban the bringing of Confederate flags onto school property.
The instance I mentioned previously involving MLK day was highly offensive to one of my friends at the time. I believe that during lunch that day we were allowed to have our phones during lunch, so a picture was taken with one of the students holding the Confederate flag with the Archer City logo in the background. Many of the students did not seem to care about the photo or the representation of the flag; however, for those that are educated on the ideologies that the Confederate flag represented, they were utterly appalled by the situation. If such a picture were to surface to other areas, it would set a bad image for Archer City High School. The flag is seen by many minority groups as racist and offensive, and carrying around the flag out of pure spite and comedy doesn’t set such a positive image of Archer’s student body.
When someone researches the meaning behind the Confederate flag, a lot of controversy arises on whether or not the flag is racist. The truth is the South adopted the Confederate flag to represent their ideologies, and at the time, the ideologies of the South were that racism and oppression of other individuals were good things. It does not matter if the flag is a symbol of the south because what “symbol” is the flag presenting to others? People who wave around these flags also support racism because of the ideologies these flags represent. Their viewpoints are unyielding on the topic. I do understand that we do live in Texas, and everyone is entitled to their own viewpoints; however, schools should be a place for students to feel welcomed by others.
These flags should be banned on public school property. There is no excuse for the allowance of such representation to exist on the campus. We want to go above and beyond academically, but students can not do that if these flags are carried by students to represent something horrendous.