ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) - A Maryland school system has updated existing policy to ban the Confederate flag, swastikas and other symbols it deems as “promoting hatred” from school property.
The ban established by the Howard County Public School System applies to clothing, vehicles and at school-related events, The Baltimore Sun reported Monday.
The Board of Education unanimously approved the ban Oct. 8 in a modification to the school system’s bullying, harassment and intimidation policy, as well as in the student code of conduct. The addition to the policy does not include a long list of symbols that are banned. It does, however, prohibit images or symbols that promote “hatred, intimidation or harassment,” and it includes the Confederate flag and swastika as examples.
Howard County schools Superintendent Michael Martirano said the modification is important because the school system’s policies should “evolve with new realities.”
“The new language … is an example of staff and the board remaining vigilant to tending to the welfare of our students,” Martirano wrote in an email.
Theo Cramer, one of the school system’s community superintendents, said punishment depends on the level of the offense according to the student code of conduct, which ranges from smaller penalties up to expulsion for repeat, egregious offenses.
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