Jay McDowell, The IDIOTS At The Howell School District & The History Of The Confederate Flag

Jay McDowell

On Oct. 20, 2010, economics teacher Jay McDowell told a student in his classroom to remove a Confederate Flag belt buckle. She complied, but it prompted a question from a boy about how the flag differs from the rainbow flag, a symbol of pride for the gay community.

"I explained the difference between the flags, and he said, 'I don't accept gays,'" said McDowell, 42, who was wearing a shirt with an anti-gay bullying message.

McDowell said he told the student he couldn't say that in class.

"And he said, 'Why? I don't accept gays. It's against my religion.' I reiterated that it's not appropriate to say something like that in class," McDowell said Monday.

McDowell said he sent the boy out of the room for a one-day class suspension. Another boy asked if he also could leave because he also didn't accept gays.

"The classroom discussion was heading in a direction I didn't want it to head," McDowell said.

McDowell soon received one-day suspension without pay & a reprimand letter from the district that said his actions violated the students' free speech rights as well as school policy. It also said he "purposefully initiated a controversial issue" by the wearing the T-shirt featuring the anti-gay bullying message.

"I thought it was a really great, teachable moment," McDowell said of his decision to remove the student from class.


Does the Howell district know that...
The confederate flag is a symbol of traitors who wanted to uphold slavery and steel land from the United States by forming their own nation within.

The gay flag on the other hand is a symbol of, among other things, working within the system to protect civil liberties.

The History Of The Confederate Flag Of America

With the formation of the Confederate States of America (the slave states) in early 1861, one of the first orders of business for the American traitors was to create a flag for the seceding states' new nation. There were two schools of thought in creating the flag.

Those who preferred a very different flag from that of the United States. In March of 1861, those who supported a flag similar to that of the United States prevailed, and the "Stars and Bars" became the official National flag of the Confederacy.

Eventually the Stars and Bars had a total of 13 stars. The thirteen states represented were: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kentucky. Note that Missouri and Kentucky never officially seceded, but were slave states, and did have some confederate state governments, although they were in exile for the most part. With this matter resolved, the participants proceeded with the prosecution of the War against the United States.

In battle, the purpose of a flag was to help identify who was a patriot and who was a confederate enemy. Having two sides fight under flags that were similar in appearance was a very bad idea. It actually did cause some degree of confusion at the Battle of Bull Run.

Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard suggested that there should be two flags. One, the National flag, and the second one a battle flag, with the battle flag being completely different from the United States flag and a battle flag was created. The flag is referred to as the Confederate battle flag, and as the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The National flag of the confederacy is almost forgotten today, and the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia has become the symbol most associated with the traitorous confederacy.