Suspended "Rebel" Teen's Mom Pleads With School For Leniency
by Jim Brown
June 7, 2004
(AgapePress) - Two Michigan high school seniors who showed up for the last day of school with confederate emblems -- one of them in the form of a Mississippi state flag -- have been kicked out of school and have not been allowed to graduate.One of the students at Grand Blanc High School in Grand Blanc, Michigan, received suspension for holding a confederate flag out of the window of his truck. The other was suspended for driving through the school parking lot with the Mississippi flag attached to the tailgate of his truck. School principal Michael Newton contends that the display of the flag constitutes a form of racial intimidation.
However, the second teenager's mother disagrees and says the school board should not expel her son and his friend over the incident. "I don't feel it's right," she says, noting that basically, her son had all but graduated, and school was "pretty well over" with only two days remaining.
"I think a suspension and being kept from actually marching with his class would have been sufficient enough -- they don't need to take his diploma. I don't agree with it one bit," she says.
The suspended youth's mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, says her son did not intend to inflict emotional harm on anyone, but was simply being "17 and quite dumb." She says he calls himself "a rebel with a cause" and was simply expressing himself. "He's a rebel," she adds. "He loves the flag. He's always loved the flag. He has a big truck, and it goes with his big truck."
Although she does not condone the teens' behavior, the concerned parent is urging Grand Blanc High School not to further punish them by denying them their high school diplomas. Also, she says the school has a tendency to discipline some students and not others, and she claims athletes and African American students often "get a pass."
