A student at Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Ark., has been suspended for wearing \u2014 and refusing to remove \u2014 a Confederate flag-themed shirt and face paint in support of a pro-flag movement called #HistoryNotHate.<\/p>\n
Several students showed up to school in apparel featuring the controversial flag and were told by the administration to remove it, but one did not comply and received an out-of-school suspension, according to local NBC affiliate KARK. Now the teens say they are upset with the way school officials are handling the situation, and they defend their right to dress in Confederate flag themes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us are racist. None of us are doing it for hate,\u201d said student Jagger Starnes to KARK. \u201cIt\u2019s Southern pride, and we\u2019re not gonna take it off for anyone. This is our flag. It\u2019s Arkansas. This is the South.\u201d<\/p>\n
But school officials say they aren\u2019t taking a political stance and are not trying to impede anyone\u2019s rights as an American. Instead, they\u2019re trying to keep the peace, they say. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to trample on their First Amendment rights,\u201d Fayetteville High School Principal Jay Dostal told KARK. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to have a safe and orderly school environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
But one teen believed that the confrontation between students and authorities got heated. Fayetteville High School student Morrigan White told local news station KNWA<\/a> that he painted the Confederate flag all over his peers\u2019 hands and faces, \u201cwherever they wanted it,\u201d and that during their lunch period, they were approached by police, the principal, the vice principal as well as school deans, \u201cand they were all telling us we either had to wash it off or go home.\u201d<\/p>\n \n But the students refused, and Starnes was the one to speak up. \u201cI told him I wasn\u2019t going to take it off,\u201d he said to KNWA. \u201cSo then I went to the office, had a discussion and then the head principal ended up calling me racist,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n According to the school district\u2019s rules, \u201cattire that disrupts the educational process or otherwise interferes with the rights or opportunities of others to learn or teach [is considered improper and unacceptable].\u201d Dostal says the Confederate flag falls into that category and \u201ccan cause a substantially disruptive environment for some of our students.\u201d He says that by banning the flag on campus, he\u2019s keeping all students safe.<\/p>\n EXCLUSIVE: Students at Fayetteville High School wore confederate flags in support of #historynothate<\/a>. I met up with the students who share why they’re upset with how the administrators are handling the situation. Tonight at 9 on @Fox24News<\/a> & 10 on @KNWAnews<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/6zXWQ7bcri<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Katie Davila (@KatieeDavila) January 23, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n