www.BurlesonCrowley.com

Local News
Judge dismisses Confederate flag case
By By Matt Smith/msmith@trcle.com
Apr 28, 2008, 19:22

A federal judge Monday threw out a lawsuit by two former students who were prohibited from carrying purses emblazoned with Confederate flags to Burleson High School.
U.S. District Judge David Godbey dismissed the suit against Burleson ISD by Aubrie McAllum and Ashley Thomas.
The two families involved intend to appeal Godbey’s ruling, the mother of one of the two girls in the case said.
“We knew [the dismissal] was going to happen about two months ago,” said Joni Thomas, mother of Ashley Thomas. “But we already have the appeal process going. It’s not about financial gain; it’s about their rights.”
Godbey dismissed the case because he didn’t want to get involved in school dress codes, Joni Thomas said. An employee in Godbey’s office confirmed the date of dismissal but gave no reason for it. Both girls have since graduated from BHS.
“For my daughter, yes, it still is an important point,” Joni Thomas said. “The way she got portrayed is not the way she is. I didn’t raise my daughter to be prejudiced.”
Kirk Lyons, an attorney with Southern Legal Resource Center in Black Mountain, N.C., filed the suit in 2007. The girls, then juniors at Burleson High School, returned to school after Christmas break on Jan. 3, 2007, with Confederate flag purses, which their parents gave them as Christmas gifts. Both were summoned into the principal’s office, where, according to their families, they were threatened with suspension unless they forfeited the purses until the end of the school day. Both refused and called their mothers.
Lyons, McAllum and BISD officials could not be reached for comment.
The lawsuit contended the district violated the girls’ heritage and right to free speech, and asked the school to clear their records and pay unspecified damages. The lawsuit also accused Burleson High School of singling out the Confederate battle flag for suppression while failing to suppress other BHS students from displaying other symbolic expressions, including the swastika.
Joni Thomas said her daughter was “astonished” when school officials accused her of representing the Ku Klux Klan by carrying the purse.
“KKK?” Joni Thomas said. “I’m Italian-Catholic, born and raised in New York.”
Ashley Thomas has an interest in history and pride in her heritage, Joni Thomas said. Her father, Darrell Thomas, is a Texas native, and her great-great-grandfather lived in Arkansas and fought in the Civil War.