Thread: Lawrence high school students create petition to ban Confederate flag districtwide

Before school administration decided to disallow it, the full-sized Confederate flag had been flying from a makeshift flagpole on a student’s truck in the Free State High School parking lot for more than a week. The flag may be gone, but it isn’t banned, and some students would like to change that.

Unlike policies banning hats or T-shirts depicting alcohol or drugs on school grounds, there is no school or district policy banning the Confederate flag. Several students at Free State have started a petition to create such a policy and plan to present it to the Lawrence school board at an upcoming meeting.

“Although it’s definitely great that the school administration has taken the initiative to go ahead and say that they’re not OK with (the flag), it’s definitely still important to try to make it an official policy so that people do know about it and it’s something that is part of all rules,” said Abena Peasah, a junior at Free State and one of the students who drafted the petition.

Peasah and three other students drafted the petition calling for a district policy to ban the flag that has gathered more than 200 signatures since it began circulating late last week.

More than a quarter of the 1,700 students who attend Free State are nonwhite, and about 6 percent of the students are black, according to statistics from the Kansas State Department of Education. Districtwide, more than 30 percent of students are nonwhite.

Without a specific ban of the flag, any future decisions regarding its display would be made on a case-by-case basis. District officials said this week’s decision to disallow the student from flying the flag was based on the disruption of the learning environment. Lawrence schools Superintendent Rick Doll said that decision was made in conjunction with the school’s principal, the president of the school board, the district’s legal department and Doll himself.

“Students don’t give up their constitutional rights when they enter the school house door, that’s kind of basic school law,” Doll said. “But balance that with a disruption to the learning environment, and in this case, we decided that the disruption outweighed or trumped the right to free expression.”

The students opposed to the flag's display don’t think that decision should be made case-by-case. The petition cites six court cases involving school districts that have ruled in favor of a school environment free of disruption or upheld a school’s decision to ban the flag. The petition also states that allowing the flag to be flown violates Free State’s own discrimination and harassment policy.

“Having to walk past an unequivocal symbol of racism and discrimination on our way into school is hardly freedom from discrimination,” the petition states.

That school policy states that the Lawrence public school district is committed to providing a positive and productive learning and working environment, free from discrimination and harassment. The petition claims that allowing the flag fails to maintain a safe and positive atmosphere:

“A symbol of slavery and white supremacy cannot lead to a positive environment for its students. This flag creates a hostile environment that is fragmenting our school. It is impossible not to see this blatant display of racism as a threat to students’ safety. After all, we are speaking of the very flag flown in a war on the side committed to the subjugation and eternal slavery of African American people.”

The school’s discrimination and harassment policy defines discrimination as follows:

“Discrimination is conduct which affords a student different treatment, solely on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity in a manner which interferes with or limits the ability of the student to participate in or benefit from the services, activities or programs of the school.”

The petition also notes other school policies, such as banning hate messages on clothing, gang symbols and the wearing of hats in school, and that those practices are inconsistent with allowing the Confederate flag on campus.

“We fail to see how the school can ban wearing hats within school yet ignore the symbol of slavery,” the petition states.

Peasah said the petition is currently circulating at both Free State and Lawrence high schools, and that she is working to add the proposal to the Lawrence school board’s agenda. The board’s next meeting is Feb. 8.

Lawrence high school students create petition to ban Confederate flag districtwide

It's funny how the atheist and the liberal attacked Christendom and sought "freedom" from the Church and its restrictions! Now, these very same people are setting up a Totalitarianism far worse. Are they "tolerant"? No.

And again, when I once complained about the homosexual magazines in our public library, the library director got in my face and told me--You can't Impose your values on the rest of society. But Liberals have NO problem enforcing their Agenda, their values and crucifying any one that bucks their morality. It's all hypocrisy. It's all evil.

The Confederate Flag is Southern Culture and heritage. Anybody that wants to carry it around or wear it should be fine. But then we live in a Marxist culture.

The Somalis come here as "refugees" because they come from a failed country, live off of the American people and then criticize our history. I question the education that they are being given concerning our history. Big business brought in Somalis for cheap labor after they were caught and fined too many times for using illegal Mexicans at meat packing plants in several states like Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. The meat packing plants get their cheap labor and the rest of the taxpayers pick up the financial, educational and medical slack. JMO

Somali language program aims to meet need of growing immigrant population

Tue, 05/06/2014

LAWRENCE – Responding to the state’s increasing Somali-speaking population, the University of Kansas will soon be one of the first universities in the country to provide language training in Somali.

Since the 1990s, when Somalia was torn apart by Civil War, the United States has seen an increasing number of Somali immigrants. Several thousand Somali speakers live in southwest Kansas, attracted to jobs in the region’s meat-packing industry. More than 5,000 Somali immigrants are in the Kansas City metro area, a population that continues to grow as immigrants move to a city where friends and family have already put down roots.

“We are proud to serve our surrounding communities in new and meaningful ways,” Kansas African Studies Center Director Elizabeth MacGonagle said. “And, we look forward to serving heritage learners, who live in the region and maintain strong connections to Africa.”

An elementary Somali language class will be offered at the Summer African Language Institute, a KU program through the Kansas African Studies Center and the Department of African and African-American Studies. In the fall and spring, more advanced Somali language classes will be taught.

The university sees a need for more Somali speakers, MacGonagle said, pointing to KU graduate student Abdifatah Shafat, who during the summer of 2012 provided outreach to Somali immigrants in southwest Kansas through the Finney County Community Health Center.

By Shafat’s estimates, of the nearly 700 Somali speaking immigrants who worked in Garden City’s meat-packing plants, just two had strong English-speaking skills. Those two Somali speakers worked for the meat-packing plant full-time and were not available for community translation. That summer, Shafat traveled to hospitals, courts, schools and police stations translating for Somali speakers.

Shafat grew up speaking Somali in northern Kenya. After he left Garden City, his employer wanted to hire a translator but couldn’t find anyone who could speak both English and Somali.

“There is a huge need for it,” Shafat said of Somali language training.

With the inclusion of Somali, KU, which already offers Arabic, Kiswahili and Amharic language programs, will broaden its strong focus on the Horn of Africa.

Somali natives aren’t the only ones who speak the language. In a part of the world where most are fluent in two or more languages, Somali is widely spoken in the neighboring countries of Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti as well as throughout the Middle East.

Along with providing connections to Somali speakers in the region, MacGonagle said the course would be useful to students wanting to work abroad and those studying business, medicine, journalism and law.

“We know students at KU are socially responsible citizens who are working to make the world a better place. They want to be engaged and enhance their global awareness,” MacGonagle said. “Students who are interested in service learning and other volunteer activities will benefit from learning a language such as Somali.”

The course also has received interest from those at nearby Fort Leavenworth, which is home to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and Foreign Military Studies Office. Learning Somali will be an opportunity for the U.S. military community to expand their study of African languages and cultures, MacGonagle said.

KU teaches 40 languages, more than any other Big 12 school and more than any other university between the Mississippi River and Rocky Mountains.

More information on the Somali summer course, open to KU students and other students and professionals, can be found on the Kansas African Studies Center website.

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. The university's mission is to lift students and society by educating leaders, building healthy communities and making discoveries that change the world. The KU News Service is the central public relations office for the Lawrence campus.

https://news.ku.edu/2014/05/05/somal...ant-population