A businessman’s complaint about the condition of the state flag flying over the Greenwood Public School District’s administration building has been addressed, according to Superintendent Jennifer Wilson.
Billy Walker of Greenwood said he brought the tattered flag to the attention of school administrators about 10 days ago.
“I said, ‘Look at that, isn’t that a disgrace?’” he said.
Wilson said that within just a few minutes of his bringing the flag’s condition to her attention, it was replaced with a new one. Then, said Wilson, some time over the past weekend, possibly related to weather conditions, the cable that is used to raise and lower the flag was damaged.
Currently the state flag is not flying on the administration building’s flag pole, but it will be raised again as soon as the cable is repaired, she said.
“On Monday morning, on the cable that the new flag was flying on, Mr. Taylor (the district’s facilities manager) noticed the cable was broken. He took the state flag off, and we have contacted a cable company to come and fix the cable.
“As soon as they fix the cable, we’ll be able to raise the flag,” Wilson said.
The Mississippi Code requires that “the flag of the State of Mississippi and the flag of the United States shall be displayed in close proximity to the school building at all times during the hours of daylight when the school is in session when the weather will permit without damage to the flag.”
The code continues: “It shall be the duty of the school boards of each school district to provide for the flags, proper flag staffs and their proper display.”
It is not clear whether the term “school building” in the code requires that the state flag fly outside school district administration buildings as well as schools.
Mississippi Department of Education spokesperson Patrice Guilfoyle said she was not sure whether the state code applied to district administration buildings or not. She said that is a question for legal counsel.
Wilson said that the school district works under the assumption that the law in question applies to all of the district’s buildings, including the administration building.
Across the state, universities and a number of municipalities have stopped flying the state flag, the last in the nation to display the Confederate battle emblem.
Mississippi public schools do not have that option due to the law already in place requiring that it be flown.
Numerous bills related to the flag were introduced in the latest legislative session, but all of them died in committee, including one that would have taken accreditation away from public schools not flying the flag.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com
