Jones Introduces Bill to Allow School Students to Wear Flag
Written by Sam on September 26th, 2007
U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones has introduced a proposal to withhold federal education funds from schools that prohibit the display or wearing of American flags, his office announced today.
Jones, a Farmville Republican, introduced the bill this week after a tiff over a Sampson County high school policy earlier this month.
What this is stemming from is an incident on this past September 11th in which a student in North Carolina was ordered to remove a t-shirt that had an American flag on it based on a policy the Sampson County School System has that apparently bans the clothing with flags of any nation. It’s an idiotic policy and the superintendent of the school system had an even more idiotic answer in that the educators shouldn’t be forced to pick which flags are permissible. I think that answer is a pretty obvious one and it’s frightening that this person is an “educator.”
Their stupidity aside, is this really an issue that the Federal Government should be involved in? Granted, if the school is receiving Federal funds and Congress doesn’t like the way they are running their schools I suppose they have the right to withhold that funding, which is what Jones’ bill would do, but is he overreacting here?
27
PM
No, he’s undereaching. There needs to be a Solomon Amendment for public schools, and not just universities.
27
PM
i personally say allow flags of all countries
27
PM
I say I don’t care and let the school board deal with it.
27
PM
If the Feds are giving schools money, they should have to play by the rules established by the Feds.
29
PM
You’re all missing something- Jones is being primaried from the right by a dude named Joe McLaughlin. Jones needs a good ol’ “Rah Rah, Go America!!” bill to brag about, and this is it. Actually, it’s pretty clever on his part.
That being said, it’s not the federal government’s job to micro-manage local schools. Is the school board locally elected? If so, let them sort it out. If the voters don’t like their decisions, vote the bums out.