High School Student Suspended for a Confederate Flag on His Truck
March 30, 2014
By Sara Noble
redneck
Gregory Vled is a 17-year old high school student at Steinert high in Hamilton NJ who has been taking his truck to school adorned with a confederate flag. He was ordered to remove it several times by the school’s principal. He didn’t and the school suspended him.
He told News 12 New Jersey that trying to make him take it down is unconstitutional.
Vled said he knows that the flag “stirs strong emotions among those who view it as a symbol of oppression and hate,” he displays it proudly because he sees it as “a mark of Southern pride and a connection to relatives who hail from the South.”
Surprisingly, the American Civil Liberties Union has stepped in and helped Vled reduce his suspension from three days to one. They wrote a letter to the principal advising him that Vled has the right to display the Confederate flag if he wants to do so.
“As the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear, students’ rights don’t end at the school-house gates,” ACLU Legal Director Ed Barocas said. “It also doesn’t end in the school parking lot.” Unless it’s causing significant disruption, it’s not legal to stop Mr. Vled.
Other students have come to school displaying the flag in support but none have been suspended.
http://www.independentsentinel.com/high-school-student-suspended-for-a-confederate-flag-on-his-truck/
