Local

New policy bans Confederate flags from Fairmont

The controversy involving the Confederate battle flag and Kettering Fairmont High School came to light in mid-August, when complaints were filed with the school about students flying the flag and the Stars and Stripes from the beds of their pickup trucks since the first day of school.

  • The battle flag was a disruption, according to initial complaints
  • A policy created in August allowed flying the flag before or after school
  • A student's parent filed a formal complaint with the NAACP
  • The newest policy bans the flying of the flag from vehicles on campus

UPDATE @9 a.m. (Sept. 15): There were no protests at Kettering Fairmont High Scool as students arrived Tuesday morning about a policy change banning the Confederate Flag from vehicles while on school property.

Students appeared to be following the new policy, and there were no Confederate flags visible as students drove into the parking lot.

UPDATE @ 10:08 p.m. (Sept. 14): There is no plan to have police on standby at Fairmont High School when classes let out Tuesday in case there are protests about the policy change banning the Confederate battle flag from vehicles while on school property, district Supt. L. Scott Inskeep said.

“We are not impeding on anybody’s constitutional rights,” Inskeep said at a news conference with Dayton Unit NAACP President Derrick Foward on the flag issue.

Foward said the local NAACP became involved after the parent of a student at the school filed a formal complaint with the civil rights organization.

“If somebody wants to fly the Confederate flag, that’s fine,” he said. “That is their prerogative, as long as they do that when it’s not on school property or on grounds that offends or affects other people and other citizens when they are conducting work.”

Inskeep said the district always anticipated that the activity involving the flag being an issue but figured with the policy in place, “it seemed to us that it was solved.”

Inskeep said the diversity training will happen relatively soon and will be for the entire school.

Foward said said the training likely will be daylong and his office has reached out to diversity training professionals the civil rights organization has used in the past.

UPDATE @ 7:32 p.m. (Sept. 14)

The Confederate battle flag will no longer be allowed to fly from vehicles when Fairmont High School students drive onto the campus and diversity training will be delivered throughout the school, according to a deal announced tonight by the superintendent and the president of the Dayton Unit NAACP.

According to Superintendent L. Scott Inskeep, five vehicles have been involved in the flying of the flag and the students who have been driving those vehicles are to meet with Principal Tyler Alexander on Tuesday.

Students who do not comply with the new policy will face punishment, according to Inskeep, who held a news conference with Derrick Foward, president of the Dayton Unit NAACP, at NAACP offices in Dayton.

LAST UPDATE (Aug. 17):

A compromise has been reached regarding Fairmont High School and a group of students who have been flying of the Confederate battle flag from the beds of their pickup trucks since the first day of school.

According to school policy that went into effect Monday, students can fly the flag on school property or wear clothing that displays it before or after school hours — but not during school hours, Principal Tyler Alexander told News Center 7’s Natalie Jovonovich.

“Some students had the symbol on their property when they came onto campus , they removed it, and when school let out and school was over they put it back up and they left campus,” Alexander said.

When complaints began coming in, Alexander and school administrators spoke with the group of students who had been flying the flag — alongside the Stars and Stripes — to address the issue they said was causing a disruption.

All of the students are complying with the new rule. If anyone breaks the rule, each case will be discussed by administrators before any decision on punishment is made, Alexander said.

But not all Fairmont students are happy about the controversy that brought about the new rule.

Anthony Woolery, a student, said, “My mom always told me that’s like a racial thing so you know to see people out here with flags on the back of their trucks, it just shows a bad image to Kettering and it makes me mad.”

Yolanda Zinn, whose son is among those flying the flag from the bed of his pickup since the 2015-16 academic year began Thursday, said, “most of these boys have been flying this flag before all this stuff even started with the Confederate flag.”

The “stuff” about the Confederate battle flag grew out of the massacre of 10 members of a church in Charleston, S.C., on June 17. The suspect, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, was arrested the morning after the attack. He later confessed to committing the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war. He has been charged criminally and could face the death penalty if convicted as charged.

Roof’s photos of the Confederate battle flag, displayed on a website he is said to have published, ignited the debate on its continuing display as did the decision not to lower the flag flying over the South Carolina Confederate Monument near the state house at half-staff because of a state law that prohibited alteration of the flag without the consent of two-thirds of the state legislature.

On July 6, the South Carolina Senate voted to remove the flag from display outside the state house. It was taken down July 10 for the last time.

Zinn, who noted she is in agreement with the school’s decision, said, “I’m not really sure why the boys are flying it, I’m not sure what the reasoning is, I do personally not believe that it is racial at all. They’re being called names and they’re being treated bad because of the flag and it’s just not worth it, it’s not worth all the trouble and somebody getting hurt over a Confederate flag is ridiculous.”

EARLIER REPORT

With the recent concerns about displaying the Confederate Flag, we’re following up on an incident at Kettering’s Fairmont High School last week, when two teen drivers displayed the flags on their trucks.

Complaints from a number of people came in to the school. Principal Tyler Alexander said the flags have become a disruption to the school day.

“We have great kids, we have great teachers, and we have conversations with kids all the time and once kids hear your reasoning on why you’re making a decision that you’re making, they don’t always have to agree with a decision that you make but they 99 percent of the time they comply, they understand why we’re making the decision that we’re making, and this is no different,” Alexander said.

News Center 7’s Natalie Jovonovich is has the very latest in our top story at 5:30 p.m. on News Center 7.