The owner of the blue truck in the picture got suspended today from Jefferson high school for flying an American flag and a police flag on his truck. Comment what you think about this.It became a big enough deal and garnered enough local attention that the Cedar Rapids Community School District needed to issue a statement denying that anyone was suspended for flying an American flag and/or a Blue Lives Matter flag, while also remaining vague about the specifics because of federal FERPA laws:
ATTENTION: We are responding to a post circulating on social media regarding an incident which took place at Jefferson High School on Friday. The post suggests that a student was disciplined for flying an American and a Blue Lives Matter flag.
This is INACCURATE and INCOMPLETE information being shared on social media. While CRCSD is bound by state and federal confidentiality laws regarding students, and which prevent us from providing context, we can say the following:
1) The representation of the circumstances being described with Jefferson High School is INACCURATE and INCOMPLETE.
2) No student has been suspended or disciplined for flying an American flag and/or a Blue Lives Matter flag.
3) Students have, in fact, several times since August 23, been allowed to fly American flags and Blue Lives Matter flags as we respect the rights of students to fly both of these flags.
4) So long as students’ behavior does not disrupt learning, conflict with the Cedar Rapids Community School District’s non-discrimination policy, or pose a threat to the safety of others, we respect our students’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.
5) This incident is part of a much broader situation involving behaviors against school and district policy and which disrupt student learning.It has been difficult to find accurate information about what happened. Most of it is gossipy "he-said-she-said" stuff. I've heard that the principal took the flag off of this student's truck and threw it in the trash. I've heard that another student took the flag off of this student's truck and threw it in the trash. I've heard that the suspended student marched down the school hallway waving it around spouting racist statements. I've even read one student's assertion that the principal had a one-on-one discussion with him and stated that the flag "a racist and white supremacist flag" (not sure which one he was referring to).
In other words, it's unclear what actually happened. One student (whose assertion has been heard all over the place) says that her classmate was suspended for flying two flags on his truck. The school district has denied that assertion, but cannot say anything more. And the suspended student hasn't said anything -- at least not anywhere where I've been tracking down information. Oh, and KCRG has reported on the story -- which is how I learned of it in the first place.
I will make this observation. If Jefferson High School really does hate the American flag, it has done a very bad job of separating itself from the flag. For example, the school was waving what I assume to be the American flag outside its building last September.
Granted, that was a year ago. That means nothing. The flag could have been taken down and desecrated since then. But then I began trolling the school's Twitter feed and discovered that the American flag is being hung in the school gym last month. And this month.
In other words, it's unlikely that the school is punishing students for displaying the American flag -- and least not unless the student was displaying the American flag in such as way that he was going out of his way to disrupt the school community.
That didn't stop a handful of students from protesting the student's suspension early this morning with flag-adorned vehicles:
I can't wait to watch KCRG News tonight at 5:30 PM. I'm curious if we'll learn anything more, or it just continues to be about people reacting to rumors and gossip.
Updated on 09/18/17: I finally got the opportunity to watch last night's KCRG segment about this story. We finally got to hear from the suspended student, who continues to assert that his suspension was because of his Blue Lives Matter flag, but also squashed some of the other rumors going around.
The student told KCRG that he was asked to take the flag off of his truck two weeks ago, but that he continued mounting it on his vehicle. He says that last week, "someone ripped it off the back of my truck and put it in a trash can." He says that the principal said that he would do something about it, but never did (or the suspended student just wasn't aware of what happened because of the very same FERPA laws that prevent them from directly addressing his own suspension to the media).
According to the student, several other students became frustrated -- presumably by the slow pace of the investigation. So they all brought flags to school as a form of protest. He denies that any of them shouted racial slurs in the school building. But he was suspended for one day following Friday's flag protest.
The suspended student plan on transferring to the Mount Vernon school district instead of returning to the Cedar Rapids Community School District.