Flagz in Tha Hood

This is cross-posted at the newly relaunched ACLU blog "Blog of Rights." Also, I'll be presenting a slide show of my comics this weekend in DC for the ACLU membership conference.

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Educators are constantly struggling to keep the wandering minds of the young focused on their studies. Attempts to weed out “distracting” clothing is a constant issue. You might expect to hear about some half naked girl being asked to come back with some clothes on. Perhaps a death metal shirt with impaled concert goers getting turned inside out by the Choir teacher. But the American Flag?

The latest Civil Discourse comic is about the real-life case of 15-year-old Malia Fontana. For the crime of wearing an American Flag bandana in her back pocket she was escorted to the Principal’s office where she was written up. Fortunately, Maria was paying attention to the part in her American History class about Free Speech. She knew her rights were being violated.

The ACLU got involved and passed the principal a note telling him to clear her name and apologize. The press release noted:

Malia has long supported young people’s rights. In 8th grade, she wrote a paper in support of the Children’s Bill of Rights for which she received a grade of A+

Did you catch that, Mr. Principal? An A+. You just messed with the wrong sophomore!