Story Archive

For Which It Stands

Pieces of cloth attached to students’ vehicles can create a driving hazard on the busy roads around York Comprehensive High School in South Carolina, said school officials, and that was why they detached the two that senior Peyton Robinson had on his truck. “It had nothing to do with being an offensive act,” said a district spokeswoman. But Robinson, 18, found the officials’ act objectionable: “I don’t think they should have touched my truck without my permission,” he said. Also, those weren’t just any pieces of cloth, one was an American flag. When he complained on social media, that point resonated, and students and adults turned up the next morning to protest outside the school. The school district responded with a statement: “This is the very process we advocate in our Social Studies classrooms and the fabric of American citizenship. Thank you for helping us as we educate the students of our community.” American flags are now excepted from the car “flagging” policy, “as long as the size of the flag does not create a driving hazard.” (AC/Rock Hill Herald) ...So students may express themselves with flags, as long as that flag expresses the most popular message in the community. What was that about the processes of citizenship?