Bus driver suing in firing over Confederate flag get some redneck pride

Bus driver is suing after getting firing over confederate flag on his arms. Some dumb kid that thought that the flag that he could not read that day that he got turned in MEDFORD, Ore. Ken Webber still proudly flies his Confederate battle flag with the word "Redneck" emblazed across it from the CB antenna on his pickup truck. He hopes that his lawsuit in federal court will get his job back driving a school bus.

"What Mr. Webber is encapsulating is a Jeffersonian agrarianism, where you stand up for your rights," attorney Thomas Boardman argued Thursday in U.S. District Court. "If we are going to say someone cannot identify as a redneck, what else can we not identify ourselves as?"

Attorneys for bus company First Student Inc. and the Phoenix-Talent School District countered that Webber himself said that the flag, a gift from his father, represented his "redneck" lifestyle, where family comes first, and people enjoy hunting, fishing and driving four-wheel-drive trucks through the mud. They said the flag did not represent any kind of political speech that would be protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Married and the father of four young children, Webber was fired last March after refusing bus company orders to take down the flag, cover it, or park some distance away from school property. School Superintendent Ben Bergreen had seen the flag on a visit to the bus yard and demanded that the flag be removed from school property, citing a policy prohibiting symbols that could be offensive to minorities.

Caroline Guest, attorney for First Student, said that because the flag hung down while parked at the school bus yard, no one could see the word "Redneck," so the flag could not be considered any kind of political speech.

"He had it because he identifies as a `redneck,"' she said. "He's proud of it, but he is not intending to tell the world."

DAT is all we got at dis moment