Local

Spirit week canceled at Osceola County H.S. after Confederate flag shown on ‘Culture Day'

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Spirit week at Osceola County High School was canceled Wednesday after school officials said a group of students displayed a Confederate flag on “Culture Day.”

Purity Maingi, 16, contacted Channel 9 after the incident and shared photos of the flag.

The experience was disturbing, she said.

“It really bothered me,” she said. “It was a whole group of people and not one of them thought, ‘This is wrong. It’s going to affect people.’ It affected me. I couldn’t just look at it and look away.”

The flag caused a disruption serious enough for school officials to cancel the remainder of spirit week.

Davonna Jean Giles’ daughter is a senior at Osceola County High School and said she didn’t think it was right to punish all the students for the actions of a few.

“To have the whole senior class punished for that, I feel like that’s unfair,” she said.

An Osceola County Schools spokesperson released a statement Wednesday saying the students involved will be disciplined in accordance with the school’s code of conduct.

Karen Parks

Karen Parks, WFTV.com

Karen Parks is a reporter at WFTV.