Hanging a noose on a tree where blacks are excluded is not a criminal act. It certainly could be if it signified a credible threat, but no one has seriously suggested that the black students feared death by lynching.

Symbolic speech is still speech, and displaying nooses is not automatically less politically speechlike than burning an American flag in time of war. Most so-called progressives apparently assume that the white students acted outside their Constitutional rights and should face criminal prosecution for a speech act. This rather than the racism displayed by children is the most frightening aspect of this controversy.