The Southern
Legal
Resource Center
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Maryville citizens ask SLRC to investigate
Proposed ban on Confederate flag in schools
MARYVILLE , TN – A grassroots citizens' group has asked the Southern Legal Resource Center to explore legal remedies in case the Maryville City School Board goes forward with a plan to ban the display of Confederate flags at school events.
The SLRC, as it is known, is a civil rights legal organization that specializes in cases involving Southern heritage issues. In 2002 it successfully prosecuted the case of Castorina v. Madison County Schools, in which the U. S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Kentucky school board's ban on Confederate symbols.
Maryville is in the Sixth Circuit.
In June the school board gave first reading to a proposed ban on “flags, whistles, noisemakers, sirens, laser pointers and hand-held signs” at school sports and other events. Second and final reading of the rule was to have come at the board's meeting tonight, July 26, but last-minute word changes have put the measure back to first-reading status.
The flag ban has been billed as a safety action; however, students, parents and alumni of Maryville High, whose teams for years have been called “The Rebels,” are positive that the policy is aimed specifically at obliterating the Confederate symbol.
Representatives of the SLRC have confirmed that they will meet with the citizens' group the first week in August.
-end-
For additional
information, contact:
Roger McCredie
The Southern Legal Resource Center
(828) 669-5189
