ST. LOUIS
An eastern Missouri school district was within its rights to suspend a student who refused to remove clothing bearing the Confederate battle flag, a federal judge ruled.
“We see this as a victory for all communities and schools in the state of Missouri,” Farmington Superintendent W.L. Sanders said after Monday’s ruling. “It leaves the administering of schools in the hands of teachers, administrators and school boards.”
Bryce Archambo, then 14, was suspended from Farmington High School on Sept. 28.
One day earlier, a faculty member took Archambo’s baseball cap, bearing a depiction of the battle flag and the words “C.S.A. Rebel Pride, 1861.”
A district official told Archambo’s father his son was not allowed to wear anything with a Confederate flag, because of its association with racism.
But the following day, Archambo wore a T-shirt and belt buckle bearing the flag and the words “Dixie Classics.”
