One of the biggest takeaways from the viral Colorado story of the school booting a 12-year-old out of class for having a Gadsden flag patch on his backpack is that the folks in charge are ignorant not just of free-speech basics, but fundamentals of US history.
How can they teach when they’re wrong about simple facts?
A top administrator at the Vanguard charter school is on tape lecturing that the flag has “slavery and the slave trade” origins, making the palm-sized patch was “disruptive to the classroom environment.”
A 10-second Google reveals the truth; the flag’s not about slavery at all.
Known for its rattlesnake and “Don’t tread on me” slogan, it originated during the American Revolution — a topic the school spends a year on in history class.
Remarkably, young Jaiden Rodriguez’s teacher toed the administration line in pulling him out of the classroom. That is, she supported ignorance, not her student being victimized by it.
The school’s fallback was to retroactively make an issue of his many semiautomatic-gun patches on the same backpack; they’re gone, and he’s back in class.
And Vanguard has eaten its words on the flag (wise, as even Gov. Jared Polis, a Democratic called out the mistake).
So far, though, it hasn’t explained its institutional idiocy. Chances are it’s intentional. Progressives have been pushing a distorted view of American history for years, demonizing everything from the National Anthem to the flag to the Constitution. To them, the truth doesn’t matter.
