Bus Driver Fired for Flying Confederate Flag on his own personal vehicle

We read:

"It has the words “redneck” emblazoned across it. And its owner, school bus driver Ken Webber, displays it proudly on his personal pick-up truck. It‘s a symbol of states’ rights, he says. What is “it,” you ask? The confederate flag, of course:

But that’s not how his employers, the Phoenix-Talent school district, saw it: “The Phoenix-Talent school district said the flag violates their harassment policy, even though it’s displayed on his personal vehicle,” according to a news report.

Webber says he was fired for not removing the flag from his vehicle.

Webber plans to take the school district to court for violating his first amendment rights.

The Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va., sent a letter Wednesday to First Student Bus Transportation Services demanding that Ken Webber of Medford, Ore., be reinstated. The institute says flying the flag is covered by his First Amendment right to free speech.

Source

As a public school body, they do have to obey the 1st amendment and lots of things that are not strictly speech have been held as protected under the 1st amendment -- so he's got a pretty good case. Calling it "harassment" is absurd. Maybe someone should show them what real harassment is.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).