When they banished Confederate flags from school property earlier this month, Warwick school officials were making their own charge in what could be called the Civility War.Warwick School District officials acted after white Warwick High School students threw trash and racial epithets, and reportedly waved Confederate flags, at some of the school's few black students.

Six students were subsequently arrested. School officials set about developing a plan to recover from what they called in a press release "the divisive acts of hate that have surfaced in our schools and community." And they swiftly declared that no Confederate flags would be permitted — on clothing or cars or any student belongings  — on school property.

The so-called "Redneck Row," an area of the Warwick High School parking lot where vehicles bearing Confederate flags used to park, has been declared history.

 Ann Van Dyke, assistant to the director of education and community services for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, said the courts have ruled that schools "have not only the right but the responsibility" to ban the Confederate flag when racial tensions emerge.

Still, some people argue that waving, or wearing, the Confederate flag is protected under the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech.

 "I don't see anything wrong with it," said a man who was selling Confederate flag badges and belt buckles and other militaristic memorabilia at Green Dragon Market in Ephrata Friday night.

The man, who refused to give his name, said, "Most people buy it for history."

Nearby, overseeing her family's belts and buckles business, Savilla King said her Confederate-flag items, including suspenders, sold mostly to 20- to 30-year-old men.

Asked what she thought about the controversial aspect of the Confederate flag, King, who is Amish, said, "I don't get too much into that."

Van Dyke, who is white,  said "White folks may dismiss it, but everybody else gets it, what the message is behind the Confederate flag.

"White people don't have the only barometer, the only legitimate interpretation of its meaning," she said, adding, "Too often, white folks think they have the only legitimate perspective."

Katherine McClelland, chair of the sociology department at Franklin & Marshall College, said the Confederate flag may mean different things to different people. But to many, she said, it's a "strong and potent symbol" that refers to America's slave-owning past.

"It's very disingenuous to say that any symbol is just a symbol," she said.

Danger signal
Rita Smith-Wade-El, psychology professor and director of African-American studies at Millersville University, said the Confederate flag signals danger to black Americans, who perceive it as celebrating "the Southern racist perspective."

If she's on a lonely country road, and she sees a pickup truck with a gun rack and a Confederate flag, "I'm going to be actually terrified," she said. "I'd worry about what these people are willing to do ... because they're making it very clear that they don't value me."

Americans who cherish certain symbols — the American flag, the Christian cross — should understand the power of symbols, she said. Symbols "get infused with meaning, and not just arbitrarily; they get infused with meaning based on history ... on real events."

To an American angered by the notion of flag-burning, the American flag is not just a flag; it symbolizes freedom, and those who died fighting for freedom.

Likewise, said Smith-Wade-El, who is black, to an African-American, the Confederate flag is much more than just a flag.

It represents slavery, lynching, violence, the Middle Passage, "all of those negative things to us," she said, noting, "Symbols have meaning. When somebody gives you the finger, it's not just the finger. It has meaning."

The Civil War ended 142 years ago, but Americans continue to wrestle with racial issues. "I have no idea of how people thought that racism was dead," said Smith-Wade-El. "Racism has never been dead."

Symbols used
Indeed, recent events, not just in Lititz, but around the country, suggest that not only is racism alive, but that the symbols associated with racism are being used to alarming effect.

In Jena, La., nooses were hung from a tree outside of the local high school, setting off months of racial tensions, and perhaps inspiring other noose incidents around the country.

According to media reports, nooses have been found in a strange array of places in recent months.

Just last week, an African-American professor at Columbia University's Teachers College found a noose hanging on her office door. And a noose was found hanging outside of a post office near Ground Zero in New York City.

Historians say that thousands of black people were lynched in the United States, particularly in the deep South, so the noose is a chilling icon to African-Americans.

"The noose is a very clear — very, very clear — message to people of color," said Van Dyke of the state Human Relations Commission. "This country is just deep in the history of hanging people of color, and every person of color in this country knows that."

A noose, said, Smith-Wade-El, says "get out of here; we hate you; you're in danger. ... It's another way of saying nigger. It's another way of saying, 'We don't want you here.'

" 'Keep your place; know your place; we want you gone; and we are willing to hurt you if it comes down to that.' "

Leslie Hyson, director of the Lancaster County Human Relations Commission, said she can recall her office receiving just one report about an incident involving a noose, and that was "years and years ago."

Her concern last week was with the problems at Warwick. She said she was pleased by how responsive Warwick school officials were to offers of help from her office and other agencies.

According to a press release issued Friday by the Warwick School District, the district, working with the Center for Safe Schools, has enlisted the assistance of local, state, and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, the U.S. Department of Justice,  the state Human Relations Commission and the county Human Relations Commission.

Representatives from these agencies will work with school officials to develop a comprehensive plan, to help "students, staff and parents recover" from the racial incidents, and to implement long-range strategies to "help our community embrace a culture in which all individuals are valued and respected," the press release stated.

Hyson said she would urge other school districts not to wait until problems surface within their schools. She is alarmed by signs that suggest that hate groups are recruiting young people. She has a feeling, she said, that "we're looking at the surface, but it's a lot deeper."

Thrill-seekers
Van Dyke said the federal government has assessed hate-crime perpetrators, and has categorized the largest number of these perpetrators as "thrill-seekers," primarily groups of white teenage boys, who "target anybody who's different, and they do it primarily for bragging rights among their peers and for a thrill."

McClelland of F&M said teens often act out and test limits, but when they commit acts of "symbolic violence," those acts need to be addressed in a serious way. "Communities do need to step up and say, we don't endorse this. ... This is wrong. This is not who we are, or, at least, this is not who we aspire to be."

It can be difficult for teachers and parents to talk about acts of symbolic violence. Consider the teachers at a Grambling State University laboratory school, who, during a lesson on civil rights and the events in Jena, reportedly placed a noose around a kindergartner's neck.

"That was just really poor judgment," McClelland said.

Most people, she said, wouldn't make that kind of mistake, but they still may find it difficult to convey the seriousness of acts of symbolic violence.

"As Americans, we always have a hard time talking about issues of race," McClelland said.

Symbolic violence — using Confederate flags or nooses or swastikas to intimidate and terrorize — "is real violence, and you should use the word, 'violence,' " McClelland said. "Sometimes it's a very direct threat, sometimes it's more of an indirect threat, but it's real."

Van Dyke said that both the noose and the Confederate flag are very commonly used by organized white supremacist groups. Based on her own observation, she thinks Confederate flag items are more prevalent than in the past. "I'm concerned," she said, "that it's related to fear and hostility about changing demographics."

People can react, initially, to diversity "with conflict and division and separateness," she said, noting, "We're still hanging on to an old definition of 'we,' an old, exclusive definition of 'we.' "

Suzanne Cassidy, Sunday News staff writer, can be reached at scassidy@lnpnews.com .