A dispute over a school rule prohibiting the flying of American flags from pickup trucks led to the withdrawal of a Virginia high school pupil by his parents.
Student Christopher Hartless of Bedford County, Virginia, had his parking privileges taken away from Staunton River High School because he insisted on keeping enormous American flags on the rear of his truck.
WSET 13 stated that Hartless claimed he was just using his First Amendment right to be able to fly the flags, which was backed by his stepmom, Christina Kingery, who made the decision that the family would teach the teen if he wasn’t allowed to fly the flags.
“Hartless claimed that he deserved to be entitled to display the flag for which his family had fought since my family fought for America.”
“Big flags or signs are not permitted to be flown or even displayed on vehicles because of their distracting nature, according to the student parking agreement, which has already been in use by all three of our high schools for a number of years,” according to a reminder the school sent out this past week, “which seems to have been prompted in part by the most recent controversy.”
Administrators also said that when parents and kids sign up to get a school parking pass, they agree to the rules.
Hartless continued to disagree, claiming he didn’t get how the flags could be a distraction because the school also had an American flag flying on the flagpole “that all the other pupils can see.”
Even though he was reminded, Hartless still had his flags up when he went to school this week. He was instructed that he should take them down again. Then, he lost his parking pass, which caused his family to decide that he would be going to home school.
Kingery, who also talked to the media, declared that if the youngster truly thinks this, then both she and the boy’s father “are equally going to be standing behind him all the way to the very end of it.”
“If they are willing to change their ways and allow kids to fly the American flag if they would like to, then I’ll put him right back into Staunton River,” Kingery stated after Hartless told her she was wrong.
“But if they don’t, I’ll keep letting him hang his flags,” she said.
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