A Colorado high school student was reportedly kicked out of class for having several patches on his backpack, including one of the Gadsden flag – sparking a social media uproar.
The 12-year-old student at Vanguard School was ordered to remove the flag patch — which features a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t step on me” on a yellow background — before he was allowed to return to class, according to a recorded meeting between the boy’s mother and an administrator which was posted to X, formerly Twitter.
Administrators at the public charter school told the boy’s mother that she could not display the patch because of the flag’s “slavery and slave trade origins,” a video of the meeting showed.
However, his mother replied that the origins of the Gadsden flag can actually be traced to the Revolutionary War — not slavery.
The seventh-grader also reportedly had another patch depicting a semi-automatic weapon, which the school said violated its dress code policy.
A clip of the encounter was posted by conservative author Connor Boyack and quickly went viral online, drawing national attention and sparking a nationwide debate about the flag’s history and relevance.
Meet 12-year-old Jaiden who was kicked out of class yesterday in Colorado Springs for wearing a Gadsden flag patch, which the school claims has “origins from slavery.”
The school’s director said via email that the patch was “disrupting the classroom environment.”
Receipt in ? pic.twitter.com/qQ8jK1zSpR
— Connor Boyack ? (@cboyack) August 29, 2023
Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, is also concerned about defending the boy, Jaiden.
“The Gadsden flag is a proud symbol of the American Revolution and an iconic warning to Britain or any government not to infringe on the liberties of the American people,” Police tweeted in response to the video.
“It appears on popular American medals and challenge coins to this day and Ben Franklin even adopted it to symbolize the union of the 13 colonies. It was a great teaching moment for history lessons!”
A Colorado teacher kicked a student (above) out of the classroom for having a Gadsden flag patch on his backpack. Twitter / @cboyack
The flag was first used by the first US naval commander as a personal ensign during the American Revolution, according to Britannica.
In recent years, it has been adopted by the conservative Tea Party movement and increasingly associated with right-wing politics.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled in 2016 that the flag itself is not a racist symbol but “is sometimes interpreted to convey a racist message in some contexts” while investigating complaints from US Postal Service employees about co-workers wearing hats with the flag.
Following public outrage, the school board called an emergency meeting and dropped its demand that Jaiden remove the patch, the Denver Gazette reported.
The school said the seventh-grader had another patch depicting a semi-automatic weapon in violation of its dress code policy. Twitter / @cboyack
The school informed the student and his family on Tuesday that he could return to class with the flag on his backpack, according to local newspapers.
“From Vanguard’s founding, we have proudly supported our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the mandated freedoms that all Americans have enjoyed for nearly 250 years,” the board wrote in an email to the Vanguard family. “Vanguard School recognizes the historical significance of the Gadsden flag and its place in history. This incident is an opportunity for us to reaffirm our deep commitment to classical education in support of these American principles.”
However, the school district says the controversy over the Gadsden flag that has gotten so much attention is only part of the story.
The Gadsden flag was first used by the first US naval commander as a personal ensign during the American Revolution, according to Britannica. AP
“There has been National media attention regarding our charter school, The Vanguard School, regarding a student who had a Gadsden flag on his backpack,” Harrison School District 2 administrators said in an email obtained by the newspaper. “Unfortunately, this story is incomplete.”
The kid also had some semi-automatic handgun patches on his backpack.
“The patch in question is part of half a dozen other semi-automatic weapons patches,” the admin said. “…The student returned to class without incident after removing the semi-automatic weapon patch from the backpack.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
