A New Jersey teenager was suspended from his high school for flying a large confederate flag from the back of his lifted Dodge pickup truck.
17-year-old Greg Vied was suspended from Steinert High School in Hamilton Township on Tuesday after declining to remove the flag, which he's apparently flown from the car without incident since January. The flag, he explained to News 12, isn't born from hatred or racism, but serves as affectionate tribute to his Southern roots. In addition to the classic "stars and bars" design, the flag also has the word REDNECK touchingly printed across it.
Vied's fervent appreciation of Southern culture is also evident on his Facebook page. His cover photo depicts a parking lot with several other vehicles shrouded in the confederate flag ("Poignant," wrote one commenter), and his profile picture is only a confederate flag, unadulterated by images of Vied or any other humans.
Vied's suspension was supposed to last three days, but was shaved to just one after the ACLU jumped in to defend him. The group argued that students have the right to free speech unless the administration can prove "that the prohibited speech would ‘materially and substantially’ disrupt the operation of the school or interfere with another’s rights."
“We are unaware of any disruption that the flag caused, let alone one that a court would consider ‘substantial’ enough to justify the school’s continued prohibition,” wrote Ed Barocas, the legal director for the ACLU’s New Jersey chapter.
