NWA editorial: Banner days

Rogers High gets caught up in symbols

It can hardly be disputed that school safety is top of mind among public school administrators these days, or that it ought to be.

The nation on Friday got its latest reminder of the dangers that lurk just beneath the surface at some schools. Lest any of us be lulled into a false assurance of security, a parent of a student at Santa Fe (Texas) High School, scene of yet another fatal school shooting, offered this discomforting thought in her town of 13,000 people: "If it can happen in Santa Fe, Texas, it can happen anywhere."

What’s the point?

A Rogers High School administrator responded appropriately to a flag-waving contest among students that threatened to get out of hand.

School administrators have always had to keep safety front and center, from the days of one-room schoolhouses to today's fortified institutions of education. It's not fair in the least, but they must concentrate on keeping the school environment conducive to its primary reason for existence, teaching and learning.

That's a tall order in this, the Age of Distraction. Try having an extended conversation with a young person (and plenty of their elders) these days and see how long they can resist glancing at their smartphones. Activate one of the phone's notification alerts and the response makes Pavlov's dog seem a monument to self-control.

But there are distractions beyond the electronic variety, as the principal of Rogers High School recognized the other day.

According to school officials, a student drove through the school's parking lot flying a Confederate flag. The school's principal, Lewis Villines, removed two flags -- the Civil War-era flag and the Mexican flag -- from vehicles out of concern "for student safety" and a desire to avoid arguments in the lot.

The instigation, however, had already triggered a response. On Friday, other students showed up at school parading around the parking lot in vehicles adorned with other flags school officials said the students "identify with," in what began to have the appearance of an adolescent competition of urinary prowess. Villines ultimately banned all flags from the parking lot, at least temporarily.

Reflecting how these sorts of episodes can get out of hand quickly, some students suggested the enforcement was a slight against Mexican students and culture. The entire situation helped to stoke an "us vs. them" atmosphere that's really the last thing one wants within a high school. Save it for the football field and that rival school, kids.

It's not the first time a flag associated with the Confederacy provoked division. It's in its DNA.

Beyond the symbolism, however, Villines had a higher duty -- to preserve an educational atmosphere. While the final days of any school year can sometimes appear less "educational" than other parts of the school calendar, the kids are still showing up for the purpose of learning.

"Students have the right to express themselves at school up to the point that it becomes a substantial disruption, safety concern or threat, or creates a hostile environment that interferes with learning," Villines wrote to a reporter at this newspaper. Villines took action he described as temporary to settle things down.

That's his job.

Students groused a bit about being required to leave the parking lot -- spaces they paid for -- if they wanted to continue their demonstration. But paying for a parking space is not purchasing a right to disrupt the school's mission.

We've seen school administrators overstep sometimes when it comes to student speech, but in this Rogers incident, Villines appears to have reasonably responded to keep students from building up a molehill into a Kilauea-size eruption.

•••

While we're here: The Confederate battle flag makes no affirmative or positive statement in 2018 America. At best, it's the modern-day equivalent of Hank Williams Jr.'s desire to "spit some Beech-Nut in that dude's eye." Like the juice from that chawed tobacco, the Confederate flag stings bitterly when someone forces it into 21st century conversations, but its usefulness was depleted a long, long time ago. Like, when the war was over.

The Rogers High School incident involved flags of the United States and the national flag of Mexico, both symbols of passionate significance for the people they represent. It's worth noting, however, the situation does not appear to have been aggravated into a United States vs. Mexico conflict. No, this all got started by the ignorant waving of an emblem from the 1860s that has, in the decades since, been adopted by others who want to believe it stands for something in danger of being lost.

Misguided people today claim it's an emblem of "our Southern heritage." Bless their hearts. Our Southern heritage is so much more than a one-time symbol of oppression that has since been reshaped further into an emblem of hate and division.

Anything a Southern man or woman wants to communicate about their heritage can be accomplished far more clearly and completely without attaching it to the Confederate battle flag. Southern pride is a great thing, but not when it's rooted in the things that flag will forever represent. Our pride should not be defined by those years of rebellion over a barbaric practice that needed to disappear from this land.

Flying the Confederate battle flag does exactly what it did in Rogers -- create divisions. Let's keep it in museums as a reminder of the violent discord that disrupted the nation, not in the bed of our trucks or on our front porches where they only represent a part of our Southern history nobody should want to celebrate.

And before anyone starts hollering about infringing on their right to expression, we don't think it should be illegal for someone to display the Confederate battle flag on their truck, front porch, halter top or jean shorts. We just wish folks wouldn't.

Commentary on 05/20/2018

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