Two weeks after the banning of the Rebel flag stirred rallies in Waldron, the Siloam Springs School District banned Confederate flags from its parking lots, the school district’s assistant superintendent said.
Some students were flying the flags last week to honor a classmate who was killed in a car crash, parents told 5NEWS.
Siloam Springs High School administrators early last week forced several students to take down Confederate flags flying on their vehicles in the school’s parking lot. No one was disciplined, although the students could have faced unspecified disciplinary measures if they continued to fly the flags, said Jody Wiggins, assistant superintendent.
The students voluntarily complied with administrators’ requests to stop, Wiggins said.
A parent told 5NEWS the students were honoring Zach Long, a graduate from the school who recently died. The parent said students were upset because they believed the school handbook did not allow for administrators to stop them from flying flags in the parking lot.
Wiggins said the action falls under the administrators’ right to stop any disruptive actions on school grounds. The flags were disruptive, he said.
Shortly after students starting flying the flags, administrators received calls from parents and students who considered the flags offensive and disruptive to the school’s learning environment, Wiggins said.
