An Oklahoma community showed up en masse at the town’s high school armed with American flags on their vehicles in protest after a student was told he couldn’t fly Old Glory from his truck on school grounds.
Edmond North High School senior Caleb Horst said school administrators told him on Aug. 21 that he was banned from having the American flag waving freely on his pickup truck, despite the teen saying he’s been “flying it for quite a while,” according to KOCO.
“I’ve never really had problems with it before, and it’s our First Amendment, so it’s kind of hard for them to infringe upon our rights,” Horst shared.
The Edmond Public Schools district has a “practice” of preventing flags from flying on vehicles and not signaling the “American flag or patriotism,” the outlet reported.
The school shared that the “practice”— not a policy — is “designed to prevent disruptions and distractions” and is enforced to create a “safe school environment, as flying flags on vehicles creates safety issues.”
“To be clear, this is not about the American flag or patriotism. Edmond Public Schools proudly displays the American flag prominently and in the proper, respectful way outside each of our buildings and in our classrooms,” the district said in a statement Thursday before the protest.
The district said it prohibits the flying of any flags on vehicles on school property and has had the “practice” in place for “several years” that is “explained” to students at the beginning of each school year.
However, the feeling of suppression of the senior’s patriotism still sparked outrage among Edmond students and community members, who showed up to the school’s parking lot on Monday morning before classes began to display their American pride.
After catching wind of the planned demonstration, the district emailed parents of high school students, warning them not to attend the planned protest.
Over 50 vehicles gathered in the school’s parking lot around 7 a.m. on Monday, peacefully protesting the school’s policy and even reciting the pledge of allegiance during the demonstration.
“In the end, we’re all American, all united under that flag, and there’s not anything anyone can do to separate us,” Horst said.
High school senior Vance Miller shared that he decided to participate in the protest because he has a “brother in the military,” and the issue “hit home” for him.
“It represents us, it’s unity, it represents us as one and it’s our freedom, we have people that fight and die for that flag every day so I think we should be allowed to fly it,” Miller proclaimed.
“It’d be different if we were trying to make a political statement, but there’s nothing political about it.”
Miller said he feels the flag “represents us, it’s unity, it represents us as one and it’s our freedom, we have people that fight and die for that flag every day so I think we should be allowed to fly it.”
But the outrage of students not being allowed to fly American flags on the vehicles didn’t end with the community.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters posted to X that his office is “working on guidelines” that will be issued to all districts to “ensure no student is ever targeted for having an American flag” and that Edmond Public Schools district has “a lot to explain.”
“We have seen parents across the state who are so tired of people, young people, being told to hate their country or not be proud of their country,” Walters told 9 News on Monday.
“We want our young people to be proud of our country. Sounds like a lot of patriotic students at the school, and we want to encourage them to show love for the country.”
Local lawmakers also announced they requested that the district superintendent update its policies.
