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Teen's Rebel Flag Lawsuit Goes To Jury

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The Associated Press

Published: August 14, 2008

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tommy DeFoe wore his Southern pride on his Confederate flag belt buckle Wednesday as he argued in federal court that a school dress code banning such items violated his free speech rights.

"I am fighting for my heritage and my rights as a Southerner and an American," said the lanky DeFoe, 18, during a break in the trial that started Monday in his lawsuit against the Anderson County School Board and several education officials.
DeFoe says his great-great uncle served in the Confederate army and "died for the South" in the Civil War.

But heritage was not the issue for school officials in Anderson County, in East Tennessee not far from Knoxville, who suspended DeFoe more than 40 times for violating the dress code before he received his certificate of completion from the vocational school.

They feared DeFoe's Confederate flag shirts and belt buckle could inflame racial tensions and violence.

DeFoe's lawsuit is the latest in a string of cases across the South since the 1990s challenging dress codes that banned Confederate flag apparel: a prom gown in Kentucky, purses in Texas, T-shirts in Kentucky, South Carolina and Georgia.

The all-white jury deliberated two hours and will resume work today.

It is unusual for such cases to go to a jury trial at all. Most were settled with a payment to the plaintiffs, said DeFoe attorney Kirk Lyons.

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