www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/10/19/224325.shtmlStudents Disciplined for Displaying American Flag
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Two California high school students were suspended last week after they refused to surrender American flags they displayed during the class photo session.
In the week before the photo, seniors at Sonoma Valley High School in Santa Clara, Calif., had been notified in the daily bulletin not to bring any flags or other "props" with them to the shoot, according to the Sonoma Index Tribune.
But suspended senior Ian Stewart complained to the paper, "The administration was totally wrong ... Last time I checked, the American flag was not a 'prop.'"
On Monday a small but enthusiastic group of 25 to 30 students assembled outside the SVHS to wave flags and shout "U.S.A.!" at passing cars.
"We live in America; we should be able to express how we feel about [being American]," Alexa Karia told the paper.
She, along with several others, cut classes on Monday to participate in the demonstration in support of the right to display the flag.
Officials at SVHS said they were merely trying to enforce a ban on all flags in student photos, but former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich isn't buying it.
He traveled to the school on Saturday and met with the patriotic rule-breakers in a dramatic show of support.
"It's such an amazing story and so out of sync with what's going on in the rest of the country," Gingrich said during a 30-minute meeting with the students, in quotes picked up by Tuesday's Washington Times.
"In the middle of a war the idea that you'd say 'no' to students about the American flag is strange, to say the least," the influential Republican complained.
School officials however, said their side of the story was being ignored.
In recent years tense conflicts have erupted over students brandishing different flags, they said, with disrupters waving banners, toting blow-up dolls or wearing inappropriate clothing with tobacco or alcohol logos.
"The staff wanted to have a photograph that focused on the students, not props," District Superintendent Kim Jamieson told the Index Tribune. "This issue was not about the American flag or political correctness; it was about decorum and comportment."
During last week's photo shoot, officials said, students showed up with an empty beer keg, beer cups, replicas of pot bags and T-shirts with alcohol logos - in addition to Old Glory.
Vice Principal Kathy Henderson said that when she tried remove the inappropriate items some of the students became abusive and pelted her with obscenities.