MCC Confederate Flag Flak is an Administrative Creation

[XLFD]

MCC Principal and Superintendent Provides Instruction on Intolerance, Ignorance, and Incompetency, All in One Lesson

Just before Memorial Day 2016, an 18 year old student of Mason County Central (MCC) High School was confronted by school officials regarding the flag he flew on his truck, see Confederate Flag on Truck Leads to Scottville School Suspension for the story.  Travis Barrette told the Ludington Torch a tale of being banned from the Scottville campus on May 27 by the high school principal, and asked to leave or the police would be summoned for the sin of flying a confederate flag on the back of his truck on school grounds.  He later talked to an officer when he came back that afternoon to pick a sibling up, who told him he was trespassing and that he would get a letter of trespass in the mail.

After the LT reported the problem, area media from near and afar picked up on the story.  As usual, they avoided talking to Barrette for further information, instead relying on statements by the superintendent who was not even present at either of the incidents.  A police report released to the LT the following Tuesday mostly confirmed Barrette's version of events, but was created four days after the fact. 

It also related two complaints lodged the day after Barrette's Facebook post went locally viral from two citizens who claimed the easy-to-recognize truck often drove recklessly near the school, well after the alleged incidents occurred.  Barrette reportedly has never been ticketed by city or county gendarmes. 

But the more interesting aspect that was being reported throughout the media was an inconsistent and evolving storyline being propagated by the MCC superintendent, Jeff Mount.  Superintendent Mount is a rather slippery school official, who has been caught with evolving stories in the past.  Back when one of his former coaches was accused of inappropriate behavior (only to be completely exonerated by the 'victim' recanting herself), the school stated it had done an internal investigation, yet had no records-- none-- at all about ever doing so.  

Since then I have asked the MCC schools for other records available through FOIA only to be rebuffed most of the time.  They also have shown that they fail to keep records required to be kept by dint of their own by laws and policies.  With their neglect of detail, It becomes easy to see why their bus fleet was almost totally red-lined just a few years ago (see MCC's Red-Tagged Bus Fleet: Nineteen Strong and Very Red, where Mount dismissed the multiple violations as minor and the work of overzealous inspectors).

It should surprise few then that Superintendent Mount has been caught red-handed in creating mythology once again in the confederate flag incident.  The previous link Confederate Flag on Truck Leads to Scottville School Suspension shows the evolution of this story throughout the article and comments, finishing up with an article on Mlive, Student claims Confederate flag got him banned; school says he's a ...  As per usual from many conventional media sources, no input from the 'student' is sought, even though he's very available for talking via Facebook. 

A minor note:  Superintendent Mount claims Barrette hasn't been attending classes at the school since March and chooses not to come to class, a rather prejudicial statement against Barrette, but according to Barrette, he attends CTE (technical education) classes at the college (WSCC) in the morning works in the afternoon, and does his high school coursework on-line in the evening.  He is not a non-student of MCC or playing hooky as indicated.

Mount makes the claim that Barrette has been talked with six times over the last few months about the 'flag issue', that too seems to be an error.  Barrette claims he has talked with three, maybe four times concerning it, without any administrative action until the day he made it public.  The disparity had me seek the school's records.  The reply I received on May 31, 2016:

"This email shall serve as a Certification of Nonexitence for the following records requested by you under the Freedom of Information Act.. The requested records do not exist under the name given by the requestor or by another name reasonably known to the District.

"All records regarding 11th Grader (18 y.o.) Travis Barrette over any incidents that directly or indirectly involve flying a confederate flag on his truck, including the documentation of two incidents that happened on May 27, 2016 with any video records thereof, if they exist, in the school's security system that may have recorded them and any police reports associated with this."

They do not exist for the following reasons:

•No documentation of two incidents occurring on May 27, 2016, as requested, exist as all communication between the student and the principal were verbal.
•No video records exist of incidents occurring on May 27, 2016, as requested, as campus parking lot cameras have not been functioning for the past year.
•No police reports of incidents occurring on May 27, 2016, as requested, are in the possession of the District or District personnel. Any such report would be located at the Scottville Police Department."

Isn't it rather convenient that the video has been out for the full school year?  Does this not bespeak of administrative inefficiency of the school district who can afford afford overpriced door hardware for 'security' but can't afford a few hundred bucks to repair their video system, which acts as a much better security investment? 

Therefore, the school kept no records of any verbal warnings to Barrette before this incident about the flag, and didn't create any records from this incident, even though it is fairly clear an executive disciplinary action was taken-- whether you believe Barrette was thrown off campus for his driving, for his insubordination, or for his disrespect of some unnamed classmates who cannot tolerate seeing the flag on his truck. 

Let's take a look at the Bylaws of MCC school (students section) and see how it absolves Barrette and implicates the school.  For driving, it shall be noted that Travis was never seen on or near campus before this incident driving recklessly by school staff or by report, for if he had, the school would have sent a written notice to his parents, as per section 8640R:

Yet Barrette or his folks have ever received such a mailing, rather two nearby citizens come forth after this flag flak to lodge a complaint with the SPD over incidents that occurred well in the past, which also contained this admission by the responding officer:

Now tell me how it wouldn't have been helpful to the school administrators if their cameras had been kept in repair, and they could show Barrette's reckless driving?  Not that there should be much credence shown to the report which was created four days after the fact, and the fact that Superintendent Mount was at the same time creating a different narrative on the flag issue, while saying that Barrette had never been suspended.  This is likely true because school policy says that if he had been suspended, there would have been a written record

Superintendent Mount originally told the COLDNews: “(The confederate flag is) banned because to many people it is a symbol of racism and slavery.”  In Mlive he further proposed that the confederate flag is not permitted on school property because it represents racism and fear, among other things, to several of his classmates. 

I wondered how these 'students' he mentions arrived at their conclusions, which are patently absurd, and why their uneducated positions are allowed to dominate the free speech rights of Travis Barrette.  Surely for such kids to hold such beliefs it must be taught in the curriculum of MCC.  But another FOIA request received this response from the superintendent:

"We have completed our search for "Any units/lessons/worksheets in the K-12 curriculum currently used in the MCC School District that touch upon the Confederate flag (aka the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia) in any way" here at Mason County Central Schools. We surveyed our K-12 staff to find that we have only one related item in our K-12 curriculum. The item is a Battle of Gettysburg bulletin board displayed in our 8th grade social studies classroom taught by Mr. Duane Wolf. I have attached a picture of the bulletin board along with a blown up portion of the bulletin board so you can see what the wording next to the flag states.

So in short, we do not teach about the flag in question as part of our K-12 curriculum nor is it a required state objective in the Michigan State Standards for Social Studies.

Sincerely, Jeff Mount  Superintendent"

The conclusion is that the school does not teach the students that this flag has any other meaning than being the flag that the confederates rallied around at Gettysburg, which is its proper historical meaning.  Therefore, the 'students' must be learning outside of the formal classroom that the stars and bars represents racism, fear, and/or slavery rather than the southern heritage that has landed it on various state flags and TV shows well over a hundred years after its defeat, after the civil rights movements of the 1960s, without a smidgen of controversy, until recent when it has become a target of a special breed of ignorant people from the Democratic Party, the traditional party that promoted slavery up until and even after the emancipation occurring after the civil war. 

One cannot make a feasible argument to say that the flag represents slavery, racism, or fear.  It represented an army and has never been adopted by any movement since the civil war other than a few individuals and states that have used it to celebrate their rebelliousness.

On the other hand, for over "four score and seven years", the traditional American flag with thirteen red and white stripes with white stars in a blue field representing the amount of states in the republic, flew over a country that had slavery as a legal institution, where racism flourished for much longer than that (firmly imbedded in the party of Andrew Jackson), and fear reigned because of the inequity many experienced just for being within the borders of the country with that flag.

For well over a third of the history of the republic under the United States flag, those concepts were established, but never was there a state, province or country that flew the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia inside their own flag that has had slavery on their grounds.  Logic thereby dictates that if any flag was seen to be promoting racism, fear and slavery it would be the flag that most of us swear our allegiance to.   And yet, MCC has a certain policy for this flag:

Wise people will look beyond that historical association and be proud of the ideals it has represented to us and other nations that have held our country's ideals up in achieving their own independence from tyrannical regimes.  Ignorant people will trample and burn the US flag; these people seem to be the same ones that would narrow-mindedly look at the confederate flag and assign their own ignorant beliefs to it and ignorantly accuse those rebellious spirits that fly it as ignorant, racist, bigoted, homophobic, etc. buffoons. 

And then they go on to form their own ignorant tyrannical regimes, be it as small as a school district, where they can impose their ignorant beliefs on others who distrust their ignorant notions and dicta. 

[Willy]

Excellent article X. Before history is taught in schools parents need to determine whose history is being taught and what is being exaggerated, skewed, falsified or even made up.

[XLFD]

I grew up and came of age in Scottville, and remember a fertile learning environment at the MCC High School social studies department, led by Mr. Newkirk for over 30 years.  An unapologetic conservative, he was adept at allowing liberal-thinking students ( of which there were many back in the late 70's) to express themselves.  Masterfully, he would let them knot their own noose with their beliefs before rhetorically painting them into a corner containing their ideological gallows. 

Ironically, he was a civil war re-enactor who fought on the Union side and probably would give someone who flew a confederate flag on their truck a hard time.  But he wouldn't prohibit them from doing so on some baseless misperception of symbolism like these modern administrators are trying to do.  In fact, I would bet Mr. Newkirk would be the first to use a variations of one of his borrowed truisms:  "I may not agree with what flag you might fly on the back of your truck, but I will defend to the death your right to fly that flag." 

Teachers like that get fired or forced out nowadays because they teach what real liberty and freedom is about.  This is a dangerous concept to our current progressive public education system.

[shinblind]

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to PC."

The PC in this case being the Political Correctness exhibited by the MCC school with their convoluted fabrications trying to justify their handling of the Flag Kid incident.

The above quote should become the anthem for all administrators who rule by the lowest common denominator of not offending the PC crowd, then having to explain their reasoning.  As they massage the truth each subsequent explanation makes them look more and more ridiculous.

Next time just try the facts. Admit up front that the PC crowd has  your administrative balls  in their lock box and because of this  you offer no comment.

Remember your Twain, "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

[XLFD]

In usual (cowardly) PC fashion, Mount tries to strengthen his position by saying 'students' have expressed that the flag represents slavery and racism to them.  Now, I strongly doubt that any MCC student would make such a protest (lest they were coached by an overbearing progressive administrator to do so), but if one had, a sober teacher, superintendent or principal would use it as a teaching moment:

Student:  That flag on Travis' truck represents racism and slavery.

Sober Adult Teacher:  Actually, it represents the battle flag of the army of northern Virginia, and only Travis can tell us what it represents to him for ...

Student:  It means he is an intolerant racist bigot who wants to bring back slavery; he's interfering with my rights to have a stress-free learning environment; it needs to be taken down!

Sober Adult Teacher:  (Thinking: You're a special kind of stupid, but saying:)  He has the right to fly it, you need some lessons about tolerance yourself.  But your first assignment will be to research and write a report on the real history of that flag.  You may be surprised at what you...

Student:  That's not learning, and you're a racist, sexist, homophobic bigot like Travis.  I'll tell Principal Jacobs about it, and of how you're not doing anything about taking that offensive symbol of hatred and fear down, just trying to give me more homework when I'm already totally stressed out over all of this.

Sober Adult Teacher:  (sigh).

[shinblind]

 

I missed this earlier in the year. 

The entire school system in this country is being run by idiot liberals.

Here is another educator as nutty as the ones at MCC.

http://www.tmn.today/2016/03/his-school-told-him-to-take-his-americ...

[XLFD]

In this story the student reported that the school administration told him:

“We’re having some issues. Some people were complaining about the flags in your truck, and the flags could possibly be offensive. We need you to take them down before your return to school on Thursday.”

Mind you, this was for flying the American Flag and the POW/MIA flag on his truck in a way that wasn't against his state's vehicle code.  These are the same people who are setting the agenda for what they're teaching your kids in school, and shows the slippery slope effect of what other flag bans do. 

[Willy]

With the left controlling education plus the media it's only going to get worse.

[XLFD]

For those who believe overpaid MCC Superintendent Jeff Mount is the only crackpot at that level making ignorant comments about historical flags, I present to you Forest Hills Public Schools (in GR) Superintendent Dan Behm.   At a September 9 football game, students on the sidelines not only held up American flags, but a Donald Trump 'Make America Great' flag and the original Betsy Ross 13 star flag. 

While you may think the students have a First Amendment right to wave a flag for their presidential choice, Behm in his community letter states it was inappropriate for them to inject partisan politics into a community football game. 

But then he doubled down on stupid about the Ross Flag:  “And to wave a historical version of our flag, that to some symbolizes exclusion and hate, injects hostility and confusion to an event where no one intended to do so.  To our gracious hosts — the students, families, staff, and community of Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills High School and Grand Rapids Public Schools — and to the student-athletes, coaches, officials, and supporters of both teams, we are truly sorry. These actions are not characteristic of our schools, our staff, our students, or our community, and they represent a lack of knowledge." 

The lack of knowledge clearly is owned by this administrator. 

[Willy]

It's obvious Dan Behm is a product of the same pea brained liberal education he is pouring into the brains of the poor unsuspecting children of the Forest Hills Schools. This is what we have progressed to. There's that word again. Progressive or is it Communism. It certainly isn't freedom of speech. I have a famly member who works at Michigan State University and he and other employees were instructed by their bosses that they are not allowed to say Merry Christmas on campus. Insane? Completely. Also, the University has just implemented a rule that says no one is allowed to use any type of tobacco product on campus no matter where they are. MSU is 15.5 square miles in size. This is kin to a city banning tobacco products. Liberal insanity is rampant and can be observed every other week at Ludington's Chitty Council meetings.