I have been following the recent developments at Free State High School concerning the display of a Confederate flag by a student. As I understand it, the flag was on the student’s vehicle and, so while on school property (the parking lot), it was not inside the school. While the articles to date do not expressly state, I also assume that the existence of the flag was brought to the attention of the school administration via one or more complaints from students. The alternative — that school administrators patrol the parking lot examining students’ vehicles — is troubling in and of itself.

Even assuming for the sake of argument that students’ complaints led to the school banning the specific display, the matter apparently will not end there. There is now a student petition being circulated to ban all such displays, on the grounds that it is creating a hostile environment that is fragmenting the school. The petition further cites the school’s policy against discrimination and harassment, as well as the historical antecedents of the flag itself.

As the parent of children and stepchildren who attended Free State, I applaud the efforts of the students behind the petition. They demonstrate a serious-minded attitude that many of the current presidential candidates would do well to emulate. At the same time, I think that their efforts are misguided, as were the initial actions of the school administration. Giving lip service to free speech is one thing, while actually embracing it in all of its complexity is another. Put another way, it is not the ideas we agree with that need protection under the First Amendment, but instead the ones we find most distasteful. I submit the late Fred Phelps as Exhibit A.

The destruction of free speech is rarely sudden, the example of Nazi Germany notwithstanding. It is usually eroded away gradually, little by little. If you doubt this, consider the following scenario, assuming the petition is granted. Native American students circulate their own petition, citing the hostile environment which they feel is created by the display of a particular flag. That flag, with its predecessors, serves as a constant reminder to them of centuries of mistreatment, oppression and outright genocide. The petition asks that its display be banned on school grounds. The flag in question? That of the United States of America. Hispanic students then join the petition, citing both past and current wrongs done under that flag. Historically, they cite the Mexican War, which even Ulysses Grant (no bleeding-heart he) called totally unjustified. In the present, they cite the disruption of families, the violation of human rights, and the loss of life created by U.S. immigration policies. What is the administration now to do?

While one might dismiss this scenario as absurd, what of others? Could a Palestinian student object to the display of an Israeli flag? Could a Korean or Chinese student, citing well-documented evidence of atrocities from the Second World War, do the same for a Japanese flag? Having started down the road of free speech limitation, where does it stop?

Clearly, there are no easy answers to questions like the one presented by the Confederate flag issue. As the descendant of men who fought to oppose that flag and all it stood for, I personally have no use for it. I also respect the views of those who are offended by it, even on a visceral level.

At the same time, I am very troubled that the administration at Free State High School is taking the easy way out. This event should be used as a teaching opportunity for all concerned, so that students can experience, on a first-hand basis, what being in the marketplace of ideas really means. After all, they cannot stay at Free State High School forever. Will the administration be there to protect them when they see the Confederate flag prominently displayed, as I have at football games in the South? Better they learn now what the protections of the First Amendment really mean, so that, should an occasion arise in the future, they will be able to claim those protections for themselves.

— Jeff Southard is a retired attorney who lives in Old West Lawrence with his wife, Peggy.