Sandy HS students petition district to ban Confederate flags on campus
“I don’t think any student of color will feel safe as long as that flag’s here. It’s a symbol of pervasive racism, the enslavement of Black lives, murder and rape."
Posted October 2020
By Garon Jones
Staff Editor
A group of Sandy High School Students have petitioned the Oregon Trail School District to ban the Confederate flag on campus. Seniors Molly Izer and Josiah Rothwell are leading the online petition, which already has over 6,700 signatures as of Oct. 26. Their goal is to get to 7,500.
The group of students are supported by members of the Sandy STAND UP Movement, which has formed to address racial issues. Both groups claim that the Confederate flag is used at school as a hate symbol to spark division, and used in conjunction with racial slurs.
“I don’t think any student of color will feel safe as long as that flag’s here," Rothwell said. "It’s a symbol of pervasive racism, the enslavement of Black lives, murder and rape."
Izer wants schools to implement more comprehensive race education. She also wants racist behavior to be held more accountable.
“It's no secret that the racism within Sandy High School is pervasive and unaddressed,” the petition states. “Members of the community know of it, as do other schools around the state. Students within our halls proudly use racial slurs, make racist jokes, and wear hate symbols without reprimand. In this year alone I documented 13 different uses of the confederate flag within our student body. This environment not only encourages students to think this behavior is acceptable but also, in its compliancy, makes students of color feel unsafe and unvalued.”
The petition then details their specific request to the school district. It asks for an amendment to the school dress code which would ban hate symbols within the campus. In addition, the petition also wishes to “address how racism that has been perpetuated by Oregon law and educate the student body on this issue.”
Newly elected chairman Randy Carmony, when asked about the petition, said that any statement he made needed to reflect the opinions of the board as a whole.
Frank George IV, a new student teacher at the school noticed that even during his short time working at Sandy High, he noted many instances of students wearing the Confederate flag and using racial slurs. He believes it is affecting students emotionally as well as academically.
“Students don't feel safe so they aren't learning effectively because they're more concerned about if the student wearing the flag is then going to use some racial slur against them or harass them in some way,” said George. “So, from a pure educational standpoint, that environment is really not effective or conducive to teaching or learning."