(TotalConservative.com) – A story that went viral this weekend seems to highlight a double standard in the country, and it has to do with a flags. A 12-year-old middle school student went to school with a backpack bearing a Gadsden flag patch and other political symbols and he was suspended as a result, yet you don’t seem to hear about this happening over rainbow flags.
A Colorado Springs seventh-grader at The Vanguard School, Jaiden Rodriguez, received a valuable lesson on the state of free speech in America when he was suspended for a day for refusing to remove a patch of the Gadsden flag. The Gadsden flag is a famous Revolutionary War symbol showing a coiled snake lashing its tongue over a yellow background with the words “Don’t Tread on Me” under it.
The school erroneously associated the symbol with racism according to their school policy’s interpretation of it and told Rodriguez he couldn’t return to class. An administrator sat down with the student and his mother, who secretly recorded the conversation which was posted online and quickly went viral. In the video, the mother explains how the flag is a historical Revolutionary War symbol and is not associated with racism.
Rodriguez’s story highlights an important divide amongst Americans ideologically, between those who share in common the valuing of American traditions and are more patriotic in their worldview with those who value the umbrella of identity groups, including gender ideology and race.
Rodriguez put out a video response to the incident and was happy about the positive public response, although he admitted his teachers were not happy with him. He was also interviewed by conservative commentators Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro.
In his interview with Kirk, the 12-year-old notes the double standard he witnesses in his school, noting that other kids can wear pride flags without any reaction but he isn’t allowed to wear a Gadsden flag. He said if the incident “didn’t go viral,” the school probably would’ve suspended him, and that he did what he did “for all kids there.”
Kirk asked what Rodriguez had to say to other young people “afraid to speak up” for fear of being reprimanded. Rodriguez said that although one may lose friends for standing up, he would rather that than “live under a tyrannical system.”
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