A 12-year-old boy was kicked out of class and persecuted by government-school officials for having a Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag patch on his backpack, sparking outrage nationwide among free speech advocates and critics of the escalating restrictions on basic liberties. The scandal, which occurred in Colorado Springs, is making headlines across the United States.
According to school officials, the boy, Jaiden, could not display the iconic yellow Gadsden flag because it was “disruptive to the classroom environment” due to its alleged “origins with slavery.” In reality, the flag has no association whatsoever with slavery. It was among the most recognizable patriot flags during the War for Independence, and remains popular with conservatives, libertarians, and Constitutionalists.
When pressed for details, the totalitarian school administrators — tax-funded bureaucrats who no doubt encourage the presence of LGBT Rainbow flags and Black Lives Matter propaganda — pointed to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And yet, even the EEOC admits in its comments about the flag that it “originated in the Revolutionary War in a non-racial context.”
Free speech advocates blasted the school and applauded the victims for standing up. “Three cheers for this mother and son for defending free speech,” said Kimberly Crowther Miller, executive director of Citizens for Free Speech. “Understanding their First Amendment rights and the history of the Gadsden flag enabled them to confidently challenge the district policy that presumably is neither equitable nor equal.”
“This situation also highlights the cowardice of those who are ‘just enforcing policy’ without critical analysis of their own,” Miller continued in comments to The Newman Report. “We all bear the responsibility to stand up for what is just and right. Simply going along with and appealing to illogical rules and policies handed down from bureaucratic structures is ignorant and weak.”
Even the state’s far-left governor, homosexual activist Jared Polis, defend the flag and what it stands for in a statement on social media. “The Gadsden flag is a proud symbol of the American revolution and a iconic warning to Britain or any government not to violate the liberties of Americans,” Gov. Polis observed, adding that it was even adopted by Benjamin Franklin.
After being confronted by the mother, the school’s “director of operations,” Jeff Yocum, pointed to an article in a fringe leftwing blog featuring comments from a “graphic design scholar.” And even that “scholar” did not claim the flag was racist, only that “some may now see” it that way because it has been flown alongside “Trump 2020” flags in recent years.
The Vanguard School, the taxpayer-funded “charter” school that discriminated against this student for his patriotic and liberty-minded views, cited district policy against racism and pro-drugs messages in communications with the mother. School officials did not respond to requests for comment from The Newman Report or other media outlets. This report will be updated if the school responds.
The story was first broken by Libertas Institute President Connor Boyack, author of the enormously popular Tuttle Twins book series, on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. It included a video of the mother and child in an administrator’s office, with the mother defending her son and the Gadsden flag despite being warned that Jaiden would not be allowed back in class with the patch on his backpack.
The scandal comes as government schools in Colorado come under increasing scrutiny from parents. As this writer first exposed last year, “education” officials in Northern Colorado were indoctrinating and bullying children into identifying as “transgender,” then telling them their parents were not “safe.” Actual witches and even a self-proclaimed “gender-queer shape shifter” were involved.
Government indoctrination camps posing as educational institutions are becoming increasingly aggressive in enforcing total compliance with so-called “progressive” dogma. Children across the nation are in the crosshairs of these totalitarians. And unfortunately, lobbying school boards or creating more charters like this one will not fix it. The only option is a mass exit.
