The Knuckleheads Of The Day: Southern Yankees

Today's Knuckleheads have got to be the Pennsylvania high school seniors who participated in a motorcade that circled a nearby rival's campus while flying Confederate Battle Flags from at least one of their vehicles:

The superintendent of the Baldwin-Whitehall School District yesterday apologized for the Baldwin High School students who drove onto the Brashear High School campus last week, waving Confederate flags.

Superintendent Donna K. Milanovich made 12 students involved in the stunt apologize, too.

"We are just very sorry that it happened," Dr. Milanovich said. "We have really a very good student body, and I think the students involved in this have learned a very valuable life lesson."

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials said "several carloads" of students from Baldwin High School drove onto the Brashear campus May 25. They said the procession was led by a pickup truck, and that the truck's occupants waved Confederate flags.

The Confederate flag is viewed by many as a symbol of racial intolerance. About 30 percent of Brashear's students are black.

The incident occurred on Baldwin's "class day," a free day on which seniors usually drive around the Baldwin community.

Besides Brashear, Dr. Milanovich said, Baldwin students drove to three suburban schools that day. She said there was no conflict between Baldwin students or their counterparts at any of the four schools.

A Brashear administrator stopped some of the vehicles, obtained the students' names and contacted Baldwin-Whitehall officials, Dr. Milanovich said. Pittsburgh school police said they intend to cite 11 students for defiant trespass, but Dr. Milanovich, who had the names of 12 students who took part, said she wanted to do something more.

She said the students were told they would not be allowed to walk in their graduation ceremony unless they wrote letters of apology to Brashear and attended a meeting with administrators, a social worker and a police officer to learn about symbols and how people perceive them. All 12 students accepted the conditions, she said, and attended the meeting Wednesday.

I'm not surprised that the students wrote those letters. I guess that part of growing up is screwing-up big-time making mistakes. But my goodness, some of the things that kids are doing nowadays.... ----------------------------See our latest education-related entries right here.