CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – Christiansburg High School administrators are threatening students with suspension or lost parking privileges if they refuse to remove Confederate symbols from their vehicles.
Senior Bailey Cox told The Roanoke Times she was called to the principal’s office for the first time last month after officials took offense to a six-inch Confederate flag sticker in the back window of her pick-up truck in the school parking lot.
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Cox said principal Kevin Siers gave her two options: remove the sticker or face a three day suspension and lost parking privileges for a year.
Another senior, Morgan Willis, said she also faced possible suspension over a similar Confederate flag on her car.
“I feel like we should have more of a right than that,” Willis told the news site.
The seniors are among three students to get the third-degree from Christiansburg officials on the first day of school over Confederate symbols the school now deems too offensive to display in the school parking lot, ABC 13 reports.
“He was like, y’all have confederate flags on your vehicles. You need to remove them now or I’m going to possibly suspend you and I’m going to take away your parking privileges,” Cox told the site of her conversation with Siers.
Christiansburg is the first high school in Montgomery County to specifically ban Confederate symbols in the student dress code and parking policy. The move comes after governments and school districts across the country have taken down Confederate symbols in the wake of a racially motivated church shooting this summer that left nine blacks dead in Charleston, South Carolina.
The suspected shooter liked to pose with the Confederate flag on Facebook.
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In Virginia, a federal judge recently upheld Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s ban on Confederate flag license plates, while others have staged rallies in support of the flag, according to the Times.
Montgomery County schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake told the site students cannot be suspended over Confederate flags on their vehicles, but a Christiansburg Automobile Policy and Contract signed by students and their parents explicitly states “vehicles must be free from displaying any flags or symbols that are deemed offensive to any race, religion, ethnic group, or sexual orientation.”
Christiansburg is the only high school in the area with such a policy, and a violation can result in loss of parking privileges, she said.
Three students were asked to remove Confederate flags during a parking lot check on the first day of school, and all complied, Drake said.
“For any flag or symbol to be identified as offensive, there has to be an incident that precipitates. And that can include a fight or any other demonstration that interrupts the school day,” Drake told ABC 13. “Once there is that type of incidence specifically related to that symbol, then that symbol is banned at that school.”
Drake said there have already been “incidents” at Christiansburg and nearby Blacksburg high schools, but the parking policy is based more on “external factors.”
“There have been no protests or that type of thing,” she said. “In working with students on conflict issues, our staff members look at more than external factors such as race. We know that often there are deeper issues at play and we work to ensure that all of our students’ needs are met.”
Christiansburg’s student dress code and locker policy also prohibit the Confederate flag, she said.
Specifically, the dress code states student cannot wear clothing “that reflect adversely on persons due to race (such as clothing with Confederate flag symbols), gender, creed, national origin, physical abilities, emotional abilities, or intellectual abilities,” the Times reports.
The locker policy bans all signs, decals or stickers.
American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastanaga believes the parking policy may be over the line.
In an email to the Times, Gastanaga “wrote that she believes the school’s parking policy could be questioned on constitutional grounds because it applies to vehicles outside the school building, not expression inside it, and the rule’s broad language makes it difficult to know what exactly is disallowed and who will be deeming something offensive,” according to the news site.
“We would urge the school administration and the school board to examine carefully any broadly state policy like” those outlined in the parking contract, she said.
Debbie Cox, Bailey Cox’s mother, told the Times she didn’t actually read the parking agreement before signing it, but doesn’t necessarily think meets the criteria in contract.
“I honestly did not think it was a problem around here,” she said.
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