North Allegheny's Ban Of Rebel Flag Stirs Free Speech Debate
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- When Zachary Klaus showed up to school, his favorite jacket with lots of emblems caused a stir with North Allegheny High School officials.
"They said I couldn't have the rebel flag because it offended someone," said Klaus, a high school junior.
The school made him cover up the Confederate flag patch, but ACLU Legal Director Vic Walczak says Klaus' free speech rights were violated.
"Offensiveness cannot be the touchstone of censorship," Walczak told KDKA political editor Jon Delano. "Just because somebody may be offended does not give government officials the right to censor that."
Then, the next day, Dakota Brady, a senior, wore a rebel skull cap to school.
"First thing I see, the assistant principal saying take your hat off, just because it had the rebel flag on it," said Brady.
Brady removed his cap as instructed, but when he drove through the parking lot with his rebel flag later that day, school officials suspended him for three days, claiming he was driving too fast.
Brady says he was not speeding, and the school's retaliating over his flag.
"I get suspended over false pretenses. I don't see that as right," he says. "I'm from a biker family. That flag has shown up all around my life, and bikers took it in because it showed them freedom."
School officials would not go on camera or talk much detail on the record.
They did say that students are banned from displaying the Confederate flag on school property.
Why?
It's not because of the students who are wearing those flags, but because of the reaction of other students whom school officials fear might disrupt the learning environment.
Schools can limit student speech if it does disrupt the learning environment, says Walczak, but the disruption must be real and repeated.
"Answer is not to censor that speech, but if somebody's got a problem with it, use it as a teaching moment," the ACLU attorney says.
Walczak says it's a slippery slope when government picks and chooses what is free speech.
"Once the government can ban the Confederate flag, then what's next? Are they going to be able to ban Republican speech or Democratic speech? Are they going to be able to ban religious speech?" says Walczak.
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