I posted this story yesterday, and today more information has surfaced that bears mentioning.

First up is this site that is claiming it is a hoax.  The author says (emphasis original):

The Clark County School District calls the story “bogus!!” with the exclamation points clear.  Spokesmen for the district complain they’ve been fielding calls all day, none with details.  Their check of the district’s schools turns up nothing.

…

None of the bloggers bothered to check the facts, it appears.  The story so far checks out to be a hoax.  No one can name the school, no one can name the kid, no one can corroborate the story.

I should probably mention that this is hardly proof it is a hoax.  Lack of info is not necessarily falsity.

…

I spoke again with David Roddy at the Clark County School District offices.  He confirmed that as of late this afternoon (January 30) no one had stepped forward to identify the school where the event is alleged to have occurred, nor the name of anyone involved, nor any other fact that could be corroborated to vouch for the accuracy of the story.

 And again, this is sketchy proof that this is a hoax.  Does it continue to cast doubt?  Sure.

So I followed up with the original story source, News Blaze, and found this update:

Update Jan 29th: The teachers at the school today talked to the children about flag etiquette and the meaning of the flag and why the pledge is made. The lights were left on in the room, so the flag could be clearly seen and the children were told that they should face towards and look at the flag. The parent spoke to the Principal and the child’s teacher. The Principal said they would not show the image of the president at the same time as the pledge tomorrow. The Principal apologized for causing offense. The parent and Principal and teacher left on good terms.

Note: the blogosphere is now saying this is a hoax because the school has not been named or the school district has not confirmed it. Instead of seeing this as a situation that was amicably resolved, it is seen as an attack on Obama, which it never was, and an attack on the flag, which it never was. It is not a hoax.

And again, we have nowhere near enough information to validate anything.  If the update is true, well and good.  If the parents are happy, let this be an end to it.

But it would have been nice to see the story validated.

Now…I am also a bit irritated at Ed Darrell at Millard Filmore’s Bathtub, the debunker above.  While it is certainly his right to list all the people  he claims were duped by this on his wall of shame, I firmly believe that my post shows responsible ethics in my report, as I was upfront with my doubts.  And while he does acknowledge my skepticism, he labels is “nearly responsible skepticism”.

Obviously I disagree, and at least one other blogger read my doubts and agreed with them enough to amend his post.

I posted this comment on Ed’s blog:

I take exception to how you labeled my entry as having “nearly responsible skepticism”.

I clearly stated my caution and suspicion, and in fact I was the first to do so.

I said this before I quoted the story:

Note: I was not able to get any secondary validation to this story which I learned about about on Ping Back, so I am monitoring this to ensure it is not a hoax, but either way, here is the story.

And went on to say:

The reason I am suspicious is that this bears common factors I see in spoofs and urban legends. Things like deliberately vague details about the school, the parents, the Vice Principal, the teachers’ names etc. While the parents being undisclosed makes sense if they fear retaliation, they should have no issue saying which school and other pertinent details.

Also I find suspicious that, near as I can tell, the story has not spread to any local papers or news, at least none that I could discover, and surely if parents were in an uproar, it would have made some kind of ripple in the local media

As an attempt to ascertain the truth I have vigorously searched all day for additional verification.

I take my blogging seriously and always strive to verify accuracy.

I think that I went far beyond nearly as I simply reported the story as written, and my only comments about it were based on my assessment of the cult of personality at play surrounding the president.

I should also note that your debunking is also somewhat lacking in verifiable references, and the Clark Co SD website has no official statement. You cite “spokesmen” and “principals” with no names or official quotes. The only quoted name is David Roddy, title unknown. And he is only quoted as saying no one has stepped forward.

As such, I consider this still unverified, not debunked, as you failed the same smell test as the initial story.

LSU

I stand by that.  I did everything to validate the story, and spent a lot of time today looking for updates and verification.  My post continues to list this as unverified.

I am sorry that Ed feels that is insufficient to help rise above his high standards of skepticism.

Ed is also a student of flag etiquette, something I share with him.  While I disagree with a few of his complaints in various posts (interpretation) I at least respect him for caring.

I just wish he was as fair minded to conservatives.  I wonder if he spent as many hours debuinking the hundreds of liberal hoaxes in the last couple years.

Oh, I almost forgot.  If you want to see a real hoax, check out this link.  I pegged this as phony from the first paragraph and did not even consider running it.

http://www.oilforimmigration.org/facts/?p=908

And I was right.

As for the school story, we shall see.  For now, it stands as unverified.

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