Bill of Rights vs. Public School

Three seniors at Bloomington's Kennedy High School have been suspended for waving Confederate flags in the school parking lot Tuesday morning. The prank, as the students called it, kept them from participating in their graduation ceremony Wednesday night.
http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_9482777

In my understanding the civil war was wholly about slavery. For the north it was fueled by Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Dred Scott Case, John Brown’s Raid, and the passage of the fugitive slave act. For the south it was fueled by money, power, and a history of wanting more state rights and less government control dating back to the creation of the constitution. But the modern confederate flag was never used in that war. So what does the Confederate flag symbolize? To many different people it symbolizes many different things like solidarity, belonging to the south, and rebellion against the federal government, but to others it represents racism, slavery, and was seen as a symbol of hate during the adoption of the Jim Crow laws and the civil rights movement.

It is protected by the first amendment, everything else aside these kids are dumb asses. They don’t even live in the south. The question is… What power does a public school have to censor the first amendment? Here is the answer; please read this, it is extremely interesting!
http://www.princeton.edu/~lawjourn/Fall97/II1weissman.html

For people who don’t have the time right now to read it. The summary is this; yes kids have first amendment rights and when push comes to shove they will be up held as long as the act in question is not preventing the other kids from daily routine and learning. It’s very important to understand it’s a two way street, it’s in everyone’s interest to up hold students first amendment rights. If you read the civil rights cases in the Princeton link I provided you will understand what I mean.

Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery into territories owned by the United States, and their victory in the presidential election of 1860 resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office.[1] The Union rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War