It's the end of the school year, and at high schools in America, teachers, administrators, and staff — God bless them all — are enduring Senior Prank Day. At Bloomington Kennedy High School, three senior boys were barred from participating in Class of 2008 commencement exercises for waving the so-called "Confederate Flag" on school grounds, in violation of school policy.
Considering the fact that Principal Ron Simmons is African-American (and incidentally was principal at Minneapolis North High School for four years), and we presume that unless they skipped U.S. history the trio was aware of the flag's controversial meanings, this senior prank showed an incredible lack of judgment and sensitivity. Like all senior pranksters, they were looking for trouble, and they found it.
The most fascinating quote of the Strib coverage was from the liberal ACLU, which shrugged at the Bloomington case:
On Wednesday, the head of the American Civil Liberties Union in Minnesota said any legal challenge put up by the suspended students' families would have a "very, very slim" chance of succeeding.
"If, in the opinion of the administration, your speech carries the possibility of a material disruption of the educational process, they can censor it," said state ACLU Executive Director Chuck Samuelson. "I wish students had more rights, but they have no rights."
That is, unless you're vigorously defending, before the United States Supreme Court, the students who displayed a pro-drug, anti-Christian message like "BONG HITS 4 JESUS" (Morse v. Frederick). According to an ACLU press release:
"We are disappointed by the Supreme Court's ruling, which allows the censorship of student speech without any evidence that school activities were disrupted," said Douglas K. Mertz, an ACLU cooperating attorney who argued the case [Morse v. Frederick] before the Supreme Court.
