Confederate flag(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A flag flap has created a stir at Windsor High School during the school's Diversity Week.
The rights of students to be able to fly flags of their choosing on school property became a discussion point after a student came to school on Tuesday flying a Confederate flag off the back of his truck.
After the flag was removed by a school administrator, a group of students took issue with the decision and responded by showing up to school the following day flying a variety of different flags, including American flags, a Confederate flag, a "Don't Tread On Me" flag and a Georgia state flag, from their vehicles.
Windsor High School 10th-grader Mikayla Richardson was one of the students who took part in the flag display. She said the show of flags constituted a statement of diversity.
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"The people that were flying the flags were either from the South or have family there," she said. "It's Diversity Week at the school and we're showing where we come from and what makes us unique."
While Richardson claims that insufficient explanation was provided for the removal of the Confederate flag on Tuesday, Windsor High School Assistant Principal Richard Thomas, who did the removing, said the decision to do so was spurred by a call from a concerned citizen.
“It's Diversity Week at the school and we're showing where we come from and what makes us unique.”
Mikayla Richardson, 10th-grader, Windsor High School
"What happened was that we had an adult in the community that contacted us and was upset that there was a Confederate flag being flown by a student in the parking lot," he said.
Thomas said after fielding the complaint, he went out to the parking lot, saw the flag in question and asked a group of students congregated there who the truck belonged to.
"I told them we can't fly that flag because it creates hard feelings and that we'd just gotten a phone call about it," said Thomas, who explained that while the school has no specific policy governing the display of flags, district policy frowns on anything that causes a disruption at school.
Thomas said since the student was not present and the truck was locked, he took the flag back to his office and had a talk with the student and his parents, both of whom said they had "no problem" with the decision to remove the flag.
However, Thomas said, it became evident to him that some of the other students were upset about the incident after another student came to school the following day flying a Confederate flag from his vehicle.
"I know that Ms. Scallon, our principal, had a good discussion with that student and some of the other students that were upset," Thomas said. "She said, 'Let's try to have an understanding here,' and tried to explain what Diversity Week means here at the school. It was a good discussion and things went well."
Windsor Police Chief John Michaels said that while certain students alleged removal of the flag on Tuesday constituted theft there are no legal issues in question.
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"Theft is intent to deprive and since there was no such intent it has just become an issue of whether or not flags can be flown on school property, which is something that is up to the school district," he said.
Thomas said the student who came to school on Wednesday with the Confederate flag flying from his vehicle was not asked to remove it.
"After discussing it yesterday among a group of administrators, we thought it over and decided to allow it," he said.
Richardson, however, took issue with that version of events.
"On Wednesday, when Mr. Thomas heard about it, he got mad and said we couldn't fly American flags either," she said, adding that she doesn't see why flying the Confederate flag on school property is a "big deal."
"I know there's concerns with what that flag represents with slavery and all that, but that's not what this is about," she said. "We're just trying to show our patriotism and for them to try to take that away is not right."
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