York Tech facing no-win situation

York Technical College is in a sad predicament.

On the one hand, it agreed to lease its Baxter M. Hood Center to the Sons of Confederate Veterans South Carolina for the group’s annual convention in March. But, after the decision stirred controversy, college officials announced their intention to bar the group from displaying the Confederate battle flag, one of the signature symbols of the SCV.

The attempt to seek middle ground is likely to satisfy no one.

York Tech officials stated during a Monday news conference that they tried to cancel the contract after learning who the renters would be. But attorneys told them that trying to break the contract could be legally hazardous.

York Tech President Greg Rutherford said Monday that while the group will be permitted to hold its convention in the center, display of the flag will not be permitted. We’re unsure whether the ban also pertains to arm patches and other Confederate paraphernalia.

Rutherford’s summation of the school’s position is a sensible one. He said Monday that York Tech deplores the Confederate flag but that legally the school cannot control the views of those groups – more than 400 in the past year – who rent from the school, which is a public entity.

It would be logistically impractical, if not impossible, to vet the political stances of each of those groups and try to gauge on that basis whether the school would be legally required to rent the Hood Center to them. But while York Tech is obliged to rent to most groups, it has the legal right to decide what materials can be displayed by those groups.

That is the basis for refusing to allow SCV to display the rebel flag.

While this might technically be legal – according to $30,000 worth of advice the school solicited from experts – it raises a number of other questions. Most prominent among them is whether the school is abridging free speech and First Amendment rights by banning use of the rebel flag by a group that honors members’ Confederate ancestors.

Any institution of higher education should welcome a free exchange of ideas, even ones that some might find offensive. Just how far should a college or university go to protect the sensibilities of students and others in the community in a nation where the same rebel flag is legally displayed on everything from T-shirts to bumper stickers to people’s front yards?

At the same time, York Tech is a public institution supported by public dollars. The Confederate flag finally was removed from the grounds of the S.C. Statehouse last year – but only after the deaths of nine members of the Charleston Emanuel AME Church, killed by a gunman who displayed the flag in a video where he said he hoped to foment a race war.

Is the school obligated to allow the display of that hateful symbol, even in a historical context?

Context can be crucial. We can’t erase history, nor should we try. Instead, we need to learn from it.

Unfortunately for York Tech, trying to mute criticism – and blame The Herald for reporting this thorny issue in the first place – has not mollified either side. We would not be surprised if SCV legally challenged the decision.

Perhaps York Tech – and other public institutions for that matter – now will develop more explicit policies for renting space before the next controversial group asks to use it.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 7:17 PM with the headline "York Tech facing no-win situation."