Confederate school project causes stir in Accomack

A high school student has stood up for his controversial project, despite what his teacher told him.

The Nandua High School freshman, William Norman, claimed his teacher and principal asked him to redo the project one day before it was due. The controversy: he painted a Confederate flag on it.

It was a ceramic sculpture of a hand, with "Robert E. Lee, history not hate" scrawled on it.

He said his teacher had a problem with his project, saying it promoted racism. It was supposed to be displayed at the school.

"I was going to do what I planned. They can't approve it and then say you gotta change it after I worked so long on it. It's not fair to me, or anybody," said Norman.

He said his teacher had approved the design beforehand, but when he was close to completing it, she changed her mind.

The principal got involved and gave him a choice — repaint it the day before it was due or get an "F."

"I'm going to stand for what I think is right," Norman said.

Accomack County School Superintendent Warren C. Holland declined to comment on Thursday, saying it involved a student matter, and Nandua High School principal George Parker could not immediately be reached for comment.

Norman, his father, David Norman, and his mother, who lives in Florida, said they all stoood by the project because it promoted their heritage and deep roots in the south.

"Robert E Lee was a third cousin," said David Norman.

"We were on the second ship from England that came to America, so my bloodline goes way back when America first started," William Norman explained to 13News Now.

After William Norman refused to repaint the project, his mother in Florida called and got involved. His dad, who he lives with on the Eastern Shore, also joined the discussion.

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Eventually, the school agreed with William Norman, allowing his project to be displayed after multiple meetings.

"Everybody should be able to practice or display their heritage in a way they'd like," said Norman.

Norman's family said this shouldn't have been about race, and it isn't. Their pride in the Confederate flag is about heritage.

"I'm not a racist, the furthest thing from it. My son's not a racist," said David Norman.

"People that may be racist might fly it, but to me, it has nothing to do with racism. It's my heritage, my blood, where I came from," William Norman explained.

The debate over whether to continue to display Confederate symbols, or whether to remove Confederate monuments in some localities, comes amid a larger national discussion about race relations.

Confederate symbols, including the flag and monuments, have been the subject of controversy in recent months in particular, after a woman was killed and others were injured during a demonstration against the proposed removal of a 1924 statute of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville last August, when an alleged member of a white supremacist group drove his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters.

The Eastern Shore of Virginia has two Confederate monuments, which are among more than 200 public symbols in Virginia memorializing the Confederacy, according to an article in the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

BACKGROUND Why now? Virginia Shore Confederate monuments draw strong emotions

A Delmarva Now. reporter's request for Eastern Shore residents to discuss whether they think changes should be made to a Confederate monument erected in Parksley in 1899 elicited a barrage of more than 640 comments in less than 24 hours, with commenters expressing differing viewpoints on the matter.

The request for comments was made in August 2017, shortly after the Charlottesville incident.

Delmarvanow.com writer Carol Vaughn contributed to this article.