Legal Commentary

Public School Changes Stance, Allows 13-Year-Old to Display American Flag on His Bicycle

By Eugene Volokh

I blogged about the incident last week, when the school ordered the boy to remove the flag. Here?s the latest, from a letter posted on the Denair Unified School District site:

As most of you are aware, we?ve had a school issue that has risen to the level of national news coverage. This incident occurred on Monday, November 8th when a campus supervisor asked one of our middle school students to remove an American flag from his bicycle while he was on school grounds. This request was based on concerns for the student?s immediate safety, and to give school staff time to investigate a potentially dangerous situation, involving threats to this student.

While it is our responsibility to ensure that all students are safe at school, we also support every students? First Amendment rights. We are dealing with the students who threatened to disrupt the school environment. And, the student involved in this incident is now again proudly displaying his flag.

We recognize that we live in the greatest country in the world and that we should all be proud to display the American flag. It?s unfortunate that the entire story of this issue has not been fully portrayed in the media. Denair is a wonderful community, filled with hard working committed citizens who support our schools and our democracy. I?m proud to lead the schools in this community and sincerely hope we can return the focus to our children and their education. We will be addressing the issue with our Board at our regular meeting Thursday, November 18 in the District Leadership room located at 3460 Lester Road, Denair.

Sincere Regards,

Ed Parraz

The superintendent has also apologized for the incident. Thanks to Fred Ray for the pointer.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on November 15, 2010 (boomark / email).