Confederate emblems banned

South Carolina district follows removal of flag

There’s a new rule in South Carolina’s Charleston County School District as the school year begins: Confederate emblems are banned from clothing, jewelry and even cars on campus.

Leaders of the state’s second-largest school district made the decision over the summer as Charleston grieved the shooting deaths of nine parishioners at the city’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The shootings touched off national debate on the Confederate flag after suspect Dylann Roof appeared in photos with the flag and other Confederate symbols, and police said he espoused racist ideologies. Roof faces state murder charges and has been indicted on federal hate crime charges.

In a historic moment on July 10, the Confederate flag was removed from South Carolina’s statehouse grounds.

The Charleston district announced the new rule on a sheet of paper inserted into its Student Code of Conduct for 2015-16, a school district spokesperson said.

The policy comes “in light of a year marred with racially divisive and tragic events,” the note read. Students are prohibited from “wearing on campus clothing, jewelry or other apparel bearing the image of the Confederate flag.”

Students who drive to school in a vehicle bearing the battle flag will be asked to remove the image.

“These situations may be reviewed on a case-bycase basis. Students in violation of this provision will be subject to disciplinary action,” the policy reads.

Daniel Head, a spokesman for the district, said that parents in the district’s 84 schools were in the process of being notified.