Methinks that York Comprehensive School officials didn't think their little Ameriphobic stunt through before lurching it into action, because if they had, they probably could have gotten away with it:
Peyton Robinson said he got the bad news from a school administrator Wednesday morning.
The eighteen-year-old senior at York Comprehensive High School was told he wasn't allowed to fly his American flag and POW-MIA flag in the bed of his pickup truck.
“He said, ‘We’re having some issues. Some people were complaining about the flags in your truck,’” Robinson told WBTV-TV. He said the administrator said the flags could “possibly” be "offensive," and told Robinson to take them down before coming back to the South Carolina school Thursday.
But apparently, Robinson didn’t have to lift a finger.
He told WBTV that at some point Wednesday, a school official unscrewed the bolts securing the flags to his truck and laid them in the bed “when I wasn’t even there.” [emphasis added]
So because somebody was (or claimed to be) offended by the American flag, school officials felt free as the four winds to vandalize young Mr. Robinson's truck. To which young Mr. Robinson, God bless him, had the same reaction as any of us would have had: "Who gives a flying bleep if 'somebody' might 'possibly' find the American flag 'offensive,' it's my GD flag and my GD truck and I have a GD First Amendment right to fly it, so keep your GD hands off of both."
Or words to that effect:
The senior — who has relatives who served in the military — was upset. ”I was pretty mad,” he told WBTV. “I don’t see how it’s a problem. Nobody has ever complained about it before.”
“I’d understand if it was the Confederate flag or something that might offend somebody,” he added. “I wouldn’t do that. But an American flag — that’s our country’s flag. I have every right to do it. I don’t see a safety issue. I mean, I understand it’s a big flag — it’s 4 by 6 — but nobody has ever complained about it being in their way or anything.”
He should probably add the Gadsden flag while he's at it....
So young Mr. Robinson posted the incident on Facebook and as these tiresomely outrageous local affronts always do, it went viral:
Students also vowed to fly flags Thursday morning at school in solidarity with Robinson — and more than seventy vehicles equipped with waving flags pulled into the school parking lot.
A crowd stood on the roadside and cheered them on, and what appeared to be a group of veterans saluted at the school’s entrance as they rode in.
And as (almost) always happens, the negative publicity forced the local educratic Ameriphobes to back down:
Principal Christopher Black told WSOC on Thursday he would be asking all of those students to remove their flags. But just a couple of hours after the demonstration, there was a big change of heart.
“Do [sic] to the outstanding display of patriotism through peaceful demonstration, it is apparent to us that many are not happy about this policy,” the school said in a statement. “School officials have reviewed the standing policy regarding flags and have decided that an exception will be made for the American flag, as long as the size of the flag(s) does not create a driving hazard.” [emphasis added]
Yes, a high school principal, in a written statement, erroneously used the word "do" instead of "due". Which kind of symbolizes this whole incident, really.
But it's that last bit in the last quote that is the key. It was only after York Comprehensive School apparatchiks were honest about why they were shutting down young Mr. Robinson's patriotic automotive display that they changed their story to his flags being a "safety" issue. If they'd gone with that angle in the first place, that might have provided enough cover for their Old Glory-squelching policy to stick (although even the South Carolina highway patrol says that such truck bed flag displays are legal).
But no, they were stupid, heedless, and arrogant enough to be reflexively honest about their hated for their own country. They just couldn't help themselves.
And they received a stiff whack from the Gibbs Rule for their trouble.
I wouldn't be surprised to see young Mr. Robinson interning for Trey Gowdy in a few years.
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