FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – A West Florence High School student is being disciplined after a Confederate flag was confiscated Friday night at football game, school officials announced Tuesday.
Florence School District One spokesperson Pam Little- McDaniel says the flag was taken by school officials and the student is being punished in accordance to the district’s code of conduct which identifies the violation as inciting or participating in a disturbance.
The South Carolina Secessionist Party released a statement about the situation Tuesday evening after learning about the incident at the school.
The statement prepared by chairman James Bessenger states that if the organization will initiate a new flagging campaign in Florence if the school district doesn’t apologize, reverse their decision and give the flag back.
We feel that this is a flagrant disregard for the constitutional rights to free expression and property of this student. It is no secret that individuals across the United States are being targeted for their decision to revere or otherwise honor the battle flag of the Confederate Soldier. The decision to punish a student and steal their property because someone is offended is not the type of response we expect to see in a country that flaunts its freedoms the way we do in the United States. We hope that the student and their family will seek legal action against the school district for this disgusting disregard for the constitutional rights of this child.
The history of the Confederacy is often told from a very bias point of view. Regardless of the emotions or feelings of select individuals, the Confederacy and the war in which it was involved is a major and defining moment in our States history. Florence is not exempt from that history. Many Confederate Soldiers served from the Florence area and Florence was home to a well-known prison camp during the War Between the States. Many citizens of Florence are very proud of their Confederate ancestry, and rightly so. For the administration of West Florence to take it upon itself to punish one of its students for displaying a symbol of our States history, a symbol more than 20,000 South Carolinians and more than 260,000 Southerners died under is a disgrace.
As a native of Florence and former student of West Florence High School, I take particular interest in this situation. Therefore, unless the West Florence High School Administration and the Administration of Florence School District One offers the student and their family an apology, removal of any disciplinary action in relation to this incident from the students record, and returns the students Confederate Battle Flag, The South Carolina Secessionist Party will initiate a new Flagging campaign in the City of Florence, to include West Florence High School.