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After flag incident, student called n-word for Obama shirt

By Tom Roussey - bio l email

DALLAS, NC (WBTV) - One day after someone ran a confederate flag part-way up the school's flagpole, a North Gaston High student says he was called a racial slur for wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt.

Now the student who says he was called the slur is suspended -- along with two other students who are white.

Devante Long says the incident happened Friday morning.

"I was coming out of the cafeteria, and it was a group of white males, and they had on Confederate flag shirts," Long told WBTV.  "And one of them said, 'look at this n-word wearing this shirt.'"

"I said, 'you shouldn't even have the shirt that you have on right now,' and he was like, 'you can't make me take it off, what you gonna do about it?'  I was like, okay, and he was like, 'yeah, because I'll kick your a --.'"

Long says he and the student got into a heated argument before being taken to the school office.  Both he and the school district say no punches were thrown.

Long says he's worn the Barack Obama T-shirt before without trouble, but thinks Thursday's Confederate flag incident on the school's flagpole has brought racial tensions to a boiling point.

When students arrived at school Thursday, someone had fixed a small Confederate flag part of the way up the school's flagpole.

School officials took it down after realizing what had happened.  The district says that incident is still under investigation, but they'll take appropriate action if they can figure out who did it.

Meanwhile, Long has been suspended for five days even though he says the other student started the issue by calling him the n-word.

The district says that student and another white student involved have also been suspended for five days.

Spokesperson Bonnie Reidy says the students weren't suspended for what they wore.

"They were suspended for the verbal altercation, for disruption," Reidy said.  Reid says there are no specific rules banning T-shirts as long as they don't have profanity on them.

But she says students can be suspended for disruptions caused by the T-shirts they wear.

Long's family feels he shouldn't be suspended -- especially for five days.

"They say that's school policy, and I think it's excessive," said Windy McCorkle, Long's mother.

McCorkle and her son say they've dealt with racism for years at North Gaston High, which is predominantly white.  They say the n-word is heard a lot, and students often display Confederate symbols. 

They say some folks have this attitude:

"That if black people move to Dallas, black people should know what Dallas is about.  That white people don't like blacks," Long said.

"I would not say there's any more racial problems at that school than any other school...in Gaston County," Reidy said.

But she added that the superintendent and school system are taking this very seriously.

"We want to make sure we have a safe environment, and we want to address the concerns of our parents, and we intend to do that," Reidy said.

Long and his family met with the superintendent Friday.  They say he told them he would let them know on Monday whether Devante's suspension would be revoked or not.

North Gaston High principal Brent Boone talked with us briefly before angrily demanding that we leave the school's property.

"This is a very volatile situation," Boone said.  "We need to calm it down."

The school system is not releasing the names of the white students involved in the incident.  They did not release Long's name either, but his mother contacted WBTV because she wanted the story made public.

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