Wawasee Wrestles With Confederate Flag IssueSYRACUSE – Wawasee High School students involved in Thursday’s Confederate flag incidents returned to school today prepared to defend their position peacefully.
About a dozen students flew Confederate flags from their trucks and/or wore the same on their clothing. An unknown person took a photo of the trucks in the parking lot and posted it to a social media site with a disparaging message.
Senior Austin Murphy was live on Facebook this morning as he drove to school, explaining that the flag isn’t about hatred as far as he’s concerned, but more about lifestyle choices normally associated with the southern part of the country.
On Thursday, Murphy was interviewed in the parking lot of the Syracuse Community Center, 1013 N. Long St., by WNDU-TV reporter Karina Flores.
“When you see a bunch of boys like us flying them on our trucks, we don’t mean no harm,” Murphy said in the interview. “We’re just trying to state a point that we’re raised a southern way. It’s a brotherhood, too. We’re all gentlemen. None of us will treat nobody in harm.”
On his hour-long video from this morning, Murphy said he was upset with what he called “lies” in a statement issued by Wawasee Community Schools.
The statement, obtained from the WNDU?website, read: “Wawasee High School has experienced an event this week that is both new and disappointing. A small group of students drove vehicles and wore clothing showing Confederate flags, along with using social media hate speech targeting students of a different color.
“Students of color have approached teachers and administrators fearful of the situation and unable to carry on with their educational tasks, and some parents have kept their children at home today. The bullying of a few has caused a substantial disruption in the Wawasee educational environment. While great leeway is allowed in free speech, behavior which is plainly offensive crosses that line.
“Wawasee will not condone bullying behavior or social media hate crimes. Authorities have been contacted to investigate this situation.
“We will return (Friday) to school where all students will learn together as they prepare for life and careers where we work cooperatively, obey laws, and respect each other.”
A review of the Facebook pages of Murphy and junior Bailey Kessler, dating back a month, shows mostly posts about hunting, outdoor living and the occasional humorous meme, but no mention of race.
On Facebook, one supporter told Murphy that as a person of color, she wasn’t concerned about them; that she knew of their character and there was no threat to other students.
Late this morning, Wawasee Schools Superintendent Thomas Edington said today was a normal school day, with no Confederate flags being displayed in the parking lot.
“Yesterday was kind of the flash point of this whole thing, and today has been a time to get back to learning,” he said.
Before leaving the administration building (at the front of the high school campus) for state budget meetings in Kendallville today, Edington said he checked with several people, who said all was well.
Edington said he couldn’t cite any specific examples of the hate speech on social media, but said several parents had called him to express concerns about it. The only recent incident of bullying he could recall was a teacher in a classroom overhearing a student making a threatening remark of a classmate.
Edington also said parents told him they had called authorities, and he instructed someone on his staff to call the Syracuse Police Department to investigate the hate speech claims. But the superintendent said he was glad things had returned to normal.
“This is a time for talking and teaching rather than discipline at this point,” he said. He added the school will continue to monitor the situation to see if they can avoid a repeat of Thursday’s issues.
The Times-Union attempted to contact Syracuse Police Chief Jim Layne this morning. Through a spokesperson he said his department had not responded to any incidents at the high school this morning, and referred any further questions to school administrators. An email to Layne asking if his department had been called to investigate the matter had not received a reply as of press time.
