I'm not going to give an opinion on the particular issue - whether schools should be banning confederate flag wearing by students. My first reaction in all these types of things is generally "no" but the problem with this story is that it is highly sympathetic, and slanted towards, this current issue which is being drummed up by neoconfederates to further their agenda:
"Since last year, we have gotten well over 200 complaints about the banning of Confederate symbols in schools," said Kirk Lyons, lead counsel for the Southern Legal Resource Center, a North Carolina-based public-interest law firm that works to protect Confederate heritage and is in discussions with some families at Cherokee High School. He said the center is litigating six lawsuits and that dozens of others challenging Confederate clothing bans have been filed across the country.
Likely this story was fed to the reporter by Lyons who has an interest in this, which is fine. However, the reporter fails to tell us some important things about Lyons.
Kirk Lyons was once a member of the National Alliance. He married the daughter of the leader of the Aryan Nations at their compound. The best man at his wedding was one Louis Beam, former Grand Wizard of the Texas KKK. In addition to working to protect "confederate heritage" he's defended prominent white supremacists and neo-Nazis. In 1993 he participated in a protest of the opening of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. In a speech to German Nationalists he said he was "honored to be in the country that has produced the world's most famous composers, artists and architects as well as the greatest führer of the 20th century" which he claims was just a stunt to tweak Germany's free speech laws. He is reported to have invited skinheads to his house to celebrate the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Some more:
In a 1992 speech to a gathering of the Populist Party, which had run David Duke for president four years earlier, Lyons summed up his views: "This is a global struggle that European people will not perish from the face of the earth, [and] if we are going to succeed in a worldwide movement, for that of white rights and a white future … we must encourage professionalism."
Email Michael Getler, and inform him that when the Post's reporters are writing sympathetic stories about children being denied their confederate heritage, they shouldn't ignore the relevant background of the some of the players they write about. Neo-confederates are encouraging their children to wear these things in order to get attention, stir up trouble, and further their cause. This kind of background is quite relevant to this story, and the reporter should have interviewed some more people on the "other side" to provide the key information about Lyons, his past, and his current agenda.
(sources include here and here and here). The first couple links detail his attempt to take over the Sons of Confederate Veterans. There's some more about that topic in this excellent analysis here.
Kos has some related comments. (and, thanks to Mac Diva for the heads up).