NY High School Students Suspended for Showing Up with Confederate Flag

Two Long Island high school students were suspended indefinitely for bringing a Confederate flag to school to the shock of classmates and faculty members. According to the principal, Brother Gary Cregan, the students walked in with a large Confederate flag draped on their shoulders and were sent home immediately.

Cregan said it was “shocking,” and couldn’t imagine any context in which the Confederate flag could not be seen as a “symbol of hate.” Parents in the community were shocked, with one mother saying “I am all for freedom of speech but to have someone come in to school with that flag draped around their shoulder, I’m not really sure what the intent was.”

The New York Civil Liberties Union, however, defended the students’ rights to bring the flag to school, arguing it creates opportunity to help children “understand the impact of this patently offensive expressive activity.”

Watch the video below, via CBS2:

[photo via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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