A middle school student in Colorado caused an uproar on social media after he was reportedly kicked out of class for wearing multiple patches, including the Gadsden flag, on his backpack.
A 12-year-old student at Vanguard School was told to unpatch a flag with a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t step on me” on a yellow background before returning to class. According to footage of a meeting between the child’s mother and the administrator, posted on X, formerly Twitter.
A public charter school administrator told the boy’s mother that the patch could not be displayed because the flag “has its origins in slavery and the slave trade,” according to a video of the rally.
However, the mother replied that the origin of the Gadsden flag could actually be traced back to the Revolutionary War, not slavery.
The seventh grader was also reportedly wearing a patch depicting a semi-automatic rifle, which the school claimed violated the dress code.
A clip of the meeting, posted by conservative author Connor Boyak, quickly went viral online, garnering national attention and sparking a national debate over the flag’s history and relevance.
Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado also stepped up to defend a boy named Jaden.
“The Gadsden Flag is a proud symbol of the American Revolution and a symbolic warning to Britain and government not to infringe on the liberties of the American people,” Polis tweeted in response to the video.
“To this day, the letter is still used on popular medallions and challenge coins in America, and Ben Franklin even adopted it to symbolize the union of the 13 colonies. Great educational moment as a history lesson.” !”
According to Britannica, the flag was first used as a personal flag by America’s first naval commander during the American Revolutionary War.
In recent years, it has been adopted by the conservative Tea Party movement and has become increasingly associated with right-wing politics.
In 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in its investigation of complaints by U.S. postal workers about co-workers wearing flag hats, found that while the flag itself is not a symbol of racism, it is “a racial It may be interpreted as conveying a message.”
Following public outrage, the school board called an emergency meeting and withdrew its demand to remove the patch against Jaden. The Denver Gazette reported..
The school informed students and their families on Tuesday that they might return to class with the flag on their backpacks, according to a local newspaper.
“Since Vanguard’s founding, we have proudly supported the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the ordered liberties that every American has enjoyed for nearly 250 years,” the board wrote to the Vanguard family. said in an email. “The Vanguard School recognizes the historical importance of the Gadsden flag and its place in history. This event reaffirms our deep commitment to classical education in support of these American principles. It’s an opportunity.”
But the school district said the high-profile Gadsden flag controversy was only part of the story.
In an email obtained by the newspaper, Harrison School District 2 administrators said, “Our charter school, the Vanguard School, received national media attention in connection with a student with a Gadsden flag on his backpack. We are collecting ,” he said. “Unfortunately, this story is incomplete.”
The boy had several semi-automatic pistol patches on his backpack.
“The patch in question was part of six other patches for semi-automatic weapons,” the administrators said. “…the student safely returned to class after unpatching the semi-automatic rifle from his backpack.”
