A high school in York Region has banned a controversial flag long synonymous with America’s Deep South, but also with prejudice and racism.

The Confederate flag became popular at Sutton District High School in the last two years, said principal Dawn Laliberté, emblazoned on bandanas, lighters, belt buckles, backpacks and pickup truck windows.

After explaining the flag’s symbolism to students this week, the school implemented a ban.

“Our first step is always to educate. We are only dealing with a handful of students who view it as a white pride kind of thing, so we thought now is the time to get the message out,” Laliberté said.

At the sprawling school parking lot, marked by pickup trucks and snowmobile tracks, most students were angry the administration was intervening in what they choose to wear or accessorize with.

Some students in the town on the east shore of Lake Simcoe said the display of the flag wasn’t widespread, and many debated its meaning.

“It’s more about the country values, we don’t think of it as racist,” said a Grade 10 student, who has T-shirts, belt buckles and hats with the symbol, and plans to keep wearing them.

“I didn’t even know it was racist,” said Grade 12 student Jess Pasco, as her friend agreed. “Then I Googled it.”

Rosemary Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society, said the fact people are embracing the symbol “shows that not only is there a lack of black history awareness, but there is also a lack of regular history awareness.”

“The Confederate flag doesn’t represent heritage at all, it doesn’t represent white heritage, or country values or the American way for that matter,” she said. “What it represents is the interest of people in the Deep South to maintain a way of life that fervently and significantly was built upon and included an ongoing use of Africans as enslaved people. For that very reason alone, it is inappropriate and wrong.”

Sadlier said students who want to represent their rural roots should consider an old Ontario flag.

On Friday, officials with the school did not return calls, but the York Region District School Board emailed a statement saying the decision to ban the flag was in line with board policy about respectful workplace and learning environments.

“The board recognizes and respects the diversity of our people as a source of strength and does not tolerate any expression of prejudice,” the statement read in part.

In the United States, debates about the flag’s symbolism continue to make news, and one online petition says the flag is “tearing apart the very fabric of our society.”

A 2011 study in Political Psychology by psychologist Joyce Ehrlinger showed exposure to the Confederate flag resulted in “more negative judgments of black targets.”

In addition to its use by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War, the flag was also a popular emblem in 1950s among people opposed to the civil rights movement and school desegregation, and continues to be a symbol for white supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, the study notes.

Ehrlinger’s study was undertaken using white college students at a “large state school.” Students were invited to read a story about a black man and then answer questions. When each student came into the room, there was a folder on the desk. Some students saw a blank folder while others saw a folder with a Confederate flag sticker in the corner, which was explained away with, “Oh, someone must have left this.”

The students who saw the flag rated the black character more negatively than those who did not.

Standing on a big pile of snow in Sutton District High School’s smoking area, Grade 12 student Cody Ley said he sees “Southern pride” when he looks at his Confederate flag lighter. He said the rule is “pretty stupid” since people have freedom of speech.

“You can buy a f------ swastika if you want, it’s still racist,” said a student walking by.

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When asked if he sees the flag as a symbol of racism, the student replied: “You’re either racist or you’re not,” before he walked away.

“Depends on the way you look at it,” Ley said.