A South Carolina high school principal's decision to confiscate American flags from students' vehicles on 9/11 has promoted meetings this week between school officials and outraged students.
WSPA-TV reported Principal Aaron Fulmer removed the flags from vehicles parked at Woodruff High School in Spartanburg, claiming rules forbid anything that creates a disturbance or draws an "unusual amount of attention."
Four students came to school that day with "large American flags mounted on posts in their truck beds," according to a GoUpdate.com report.
Fulmer took the flags down, then returned them to the students at the end of the day.
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Spartanburg District 4 Supt. Rallie Liston said school officials don't have the option to "discriminate" on an issue as fundamental as the First Amendment.
According to BizPac Review, some members of the community were outraged.
WSPA reported about a dozen people drove by the front of the school with flags flying from their vehicles early Monday, while another handful stood on the sidewalk waving flags.
The parents told the station their plan was to oppose the "zero tolerance policy."
BizPacReview said in an attempt to accommodate the students, Fulmer has announced homecoming week will kick off with 'American Monday,' asking students to dress in red, white and blue and bring American flags. Monday previously had been designated as "America Day," however.
Fulmer told the reporter, "I don't want our kids to think the school does not support our country."
WND columnist Chuck Norris wrote of similar controversy in Texas when a landlord ordered a tenant to remove an American flag.
Norris said these "flag-flying travesties wouldn't be so tragic if they weren't becoming so prevalent and symptomatic of an America gone awry from its original mission and founders' intent."
WND reported a dispute in which the 9th U.S. Circuit upheld the right of high school students in California to wear flag-themed clothing to school.
"The court's rationale behind this ruling was essentially that it's not safe to display an American flag in an American public school, for fear of causing offense and disruption," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute and author of "A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State."
"This case signifies so much of what is wrong with America today, where the populace is indoctrinated into a politically correct mindset, starting in the schools, while those who exercise their freedoms are punished for it," he said.
WND later reported when protesters waving U.S. flags in front of the school to protest its flag ban were called racist.