A group of students at West Plains High School in Missouri didn’t like the rainbow pride flags some of their classmates were handing out at school last week… so they raised a Confederate flag in the cafeteria.
Just another day in Trump’s America.
Sophomore Rose Schilmoeller tells local news station KY3 that she and her friends distributed around 60 small rainbow flags last Monday.
“People would put them like sticking out of backpacks or just carry them around,” she explains, calling it “a good way to show people that they’re not alone.”
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“On Monday, I saw a girl walking down the hallway and she had like a gay pride flag in her hair, in her ponytail,” junior Abigail Lipford adds.
Well, evidently, a group of young, white, mostly males students found the act of solidarity and inclusiveness triggering, so they brought a Confederate flag to school the next day and waved it around the cafeteria.
High School Students Protest Pride Flags by Flying Confederate Flag in Cafeteria
Trumpworld: https://t.co/zAtsiXq1V6 pic.twitter.com/39BkMrZK0n
— Dane B. McFadhen (@DaneMcFadhen) December 17, 2019
“I noticed two boys get up and they have the Confederate flag and they’re like showing it to the lunchroom in the senior cafe,” Lipford explains.
“I was kind of mad because you can have your flag and that’s fine but it’s like they were using it as retaliation,” Schilmoeller adds.
Eventually, a teacher stepped in and took the racist flag away from the students.
Luke Boyer, assistant superintendent of the school district, tells BuzzFeed News that the whole thing has “been blown way out of proportion” by the media and some reports about what had happened simply aren’t true, though he declined to elaborate.
The school says nobody will be punished for the incident and that they instead hope to “teach our students to respect each other and to respect different viewpoints on a variety of social issues.”
Evidently, at West Plains High School, waving a white supremacist flag is just a “different viewpoint” from LGBTQ equality and should be “respected.”
Like we already said… Just another day in Trump’s America.
Related: Trump just became the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. Now, the memes…
rustyiam
Graham honey the first amendment existed long before Trump became president! Perhaps you should move to communist China I think their totalitarian way of life would suite you much better!
jjose712
Wow, of all the article you decide to focus on that.
I suppose you have a lazy day at trolling
Den
It is stunning how little you understand! And really now, as nobody was punished, the first amendment WAS respected. The first amendment does not mean people of intellect and ethics cannot excoriate idiots, speech has consequences.
It means the government cannot persecute or prosecute you for speech, performance or opinion, something you would likely oppose if you had the critical skills to understand it.
uchicago_grad
The confederate flag is a symbol of hatred and bigotry. There’s a difference between the confederate flag and a pride flag. Sure, argue first amendment rights. Great. I’ll show up to Gettysburg, PA and poop on the confederate flag. How about that for first amendment rights. Or better yet, take a leak on Robert E Lee’s tomb. The South lost. The South will never rise again. #truth #getoverit
jcoberkrom
Let’s see. One, for better or worse, is connected with hate and the other is connected with love.
Yeah, a significant difference
Mack
It’s Missouri, should that be any surprise? Just another racist, bigoted state.
jasentylar
There are racists in every state. Pocket your ignorance
Den
Some demonstrably have a larger percentage of them.
rbernard
Shameful – Those spoiled ignorant bigots need to stop romanticizing a most terrible period in our nation’s history.
That flag says the traitors that lost a war they started over slavery resulted in a half million American citizens to die and ruin the lives of the people who lived in the south for generations.
That is the real meaning of the Confederate flag.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I’m quite shocked this flag is still being waved by many Americans; if in canada a rebellion was started and crushed, everything associated with said rebellion, including the flag the rebellion stood under, would be declared treasonous and banned.
Smith David
As an African American…..I.
I just need a few days off from being black in America. It’s exhausting. But, i’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget…the racism.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
I feel sorry for all of those kids, regardless of what flag they are waving. I just went on google earth to see what part of the state their in (a few hollers from Branson, Mo) and its clear why those boys did what they did. They see NOTHING but white people from the time they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night. No asians, no latinos, and regardless of its proximity to Arkansas theres a good chance they go for days without seeing black people. I know they see people of color on television but its not the same as seeing and talking to them in person. And now here come the gays? They did what comes natural to the ignorant, circle the wagons and pass the ammo. The area is rural and mobil homes (aka trailers) are the order of the day in those parts. Why don’t I just say it? Ok, these kids are white trash in the eyes of city dwellers, no matter what flag they wave.