HS Forfeits Game Over Flag Flap

A Chicago charter school with an overwhelmingly black student body forfeited a scheduled football game because the host team has a Rebel mascot who carries a Confederate flag. Now the state's high school association says it will investigate.

The team from the Longwood Campus of Chicago International Charter School was scheduled to play Saturday at Southern High School in the western Illinois town of Stronghurst.

But Longwood coach and athletic director Bill Ham said Southern coach Scott Dillard called Tuesday and asked if his school's Confederate flag ritual would bother the Longwood players, who are from Chicago's South Side.

"Our kids were kind of shocked," Ham told the Chicago Tribune for Saturday editions. "They kind of looked at me, and a few had their mouths open. This can't really be true.

"Pretty soon they said `No coach, we don't want to do that. We don't want them to do that.'"

Ham said Dillard told him later that the flag would be excluded from the game, but he said he and Longwood Director of Schools Robert Lang decided to forfeit anyway to make sure that there were no confrontations between fans of the two teams.

Charles Barber, superintendent of Southern Community Unit District 120, issued a statement saying there was no malicious intent in choosing a Confederate soldier as a mascot. He said it was done in response to a rival school's use of a Union soldier.

Illinois High School Association Executive Director Marty Hickman called the flag's use insensitive and inappropriate and said Friday the association would investigate.

"I think it's worth looking at whether or not that type of situation is something covered by our bylaws," Hickman told the Tribune. "It's the first we ever heard of someone waving a Confederate flag after a touchdown. I'm kind of surprised by that, quite honesty."