LANCASTER : Blacks Urge High School to Drop Rebel Symbols
A group of African Americans has demanded that Quartz Hill High School’s use of the symbols of the Confederacy be eliminated and that district employees receive mandatory sensitivity training.
“In case you haven’t heard, the South lost the war,” NAACP official Lynda Thompson Taylor told the Antelope Valley Union High School District board Wednesday night. “This is the United States of America. Not the Confederate States of America. . . . The symbols are offensive and degrading to all Americans.”
Quartz Hill student La Dawn Best presented the board with a student petition opposing the use of the symbols. It had been signed by more than 1,000 students, Best said.
The board took no action at the meeting, but school officials said afterward that they have taken steps to eliminate the symbols.
The Confederate flag is emblazoned on the school crest. A Confederate soldier, nicknamed Johnny Reb, is the school’s mascot, and its football team is called the Rebels.
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