Academia, Free Speech

Colorado Controversy Raises Questions Over the Meaning of the Gadsden Flag [Updated]

The historic Gadsden flag is at the heart of a controversy involving a twelve-year-old boy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The child was removed from the school due to a patch on his backpack featuring the flag. The school district defended the action and claimed that, despite its historical symbolism, it is now considered racist and connected to slavery. Not only is the flag a historical image originally unconnected to slavery, but the action (in my view) contravenes core free speech protections.

The flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina in 1775 as a symbol of the defiance of colonists to British rule. (Some trace the origins of the flag earlier to a design by Benjamin Franklin). Featuring a timber snake, it affirmed the view of the colonists that they would not be stepped on by overbearing British officials and troops.

While Gadsden would become a brigadier general in the Continental Army, he gave the flag to Commodore Esek Hopkins who later adopted it as his flag as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy.  For the revolutionaries, it embodied the essence of the war: they were the victims of the British overstepping their authority and treading upon the rights of the colonies.

The historic image is still cherished by many, including those who see it as a symbol of defiance of individual citizens to overreaching government action.

That was the view at The Vanguard School in Colorado Springs. A video on the social media platform X, shows the 12-year-old elementary school student being removed from class.

A staff member explained that the image is now deemed “disruptive to the classroom environment” and that it has “origins with slavery.” The boy’s parent is told that the child must remove the patch before he can return to school.

The staffer tells the parent to speak with Jeff Yocum, the director of operations at the school.

Yocum reportedly cited research by a graphic design professor at Iowa State University Paul Bruski, who declared the flag as now a symbol of hate:  “Because of its creator’s history and because it is commonly flown alongside ‘Trump 2020’ flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag as a symbol of intolerance and hate – or even racism.”

Yocum also reportedly cited a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruling involving a Postal worker, which found that while the flag “originated in the Revolutionary War in a non-racial context,” despite its “historic origins and meaning of the symbol, it also has since been sometimes interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages.”

We previously discussed how the EEOC reinstated a case in 2016 of an employee objecting to another employee wearing a cap with the symbol.

Clearly, symbols can have different meanings for different people. I disagree with Professor Bruski, but respect his right to raise such objections. The question is whether others respect the right of those with opposing views, including viewing this flag as an important and inspiring symbol of the American Revolution.

The censorship of the image strikes me as a clear denial of free speech rights for this student. I obviously do not agree with the historical interpretation, but I am far more concerned about the constitutional interpretation of the school district allowing such censorship of images.

It is an ironic moment for a flag that symbolized the resistance to overbearing government actions and the denial of core rights in the American Revolution.

Update:

Today the school district reversed its decision and will now allow the student and the flag back into the school:

From Vanguard’s founding we have proudly supported our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the ordered liberty that all Americans have enjoyed for almost 250 years. The Vanguard School recognizes the historical significance of the Gadsden flag and its place in history. This incident is an occasion for us to reaffirm our deep commitment to a classical education in support of these American principles.

At this time, the Vanguard School Board and the District have informed the student’s family that he may attend school with the Gadsden flag patch visible on his backpack.

132 thoughts on “Colorado Controversy Raises Questions Over the Meaning of the Gadsden Flag [Updated]”

  2. Behold this “Good Nazi” school administrator who’s “just following orders.” The video is a symbol of cultural ignorance, woke tyranny and going along to get along — all endlessly unAmerican — in our education monolith.

  3. The educators need to be educated and once again it’s the Left that shows hate and intolerance in addition to ignorance.

  4. The stupid staff member said that the flag was disturbing to other students. So, did any other student say it was disturbing, did any students, cringe in fear, shout about racism, run out of the classroom screaming and crying, have to be taken to a hospital? School administrators and teachers often like to remind everyone just how so well educated they are, this incident just proves that some are dumber than dirt. The staff member needs to go back to school and learn about United States history. You just can’t fix stupid.

  7. How long before Reichsmarschall Garland dispatches his storm troopers in response to the L-word (as in “Give me xxxxxxx or give me death”) being declared hate speech?

  9. “THE LOWEST SOCIAL OR ECONOMIC CLASS OF A COMMUNITY”

    One may argue until one is blue in the face.

    One will not, and cannot, change a thing.

    These dependents and parasites are incorrigible communists who seek the implementation of central planning, control of the means of production (i.e. unconstitutional regulation), redistribution of wealth, social engineering, and the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” the dictatorship of the workers – the lunatics taking charge of the asylum.

    They are direct and mortal enemies of the American thesis of Freedom and Self-Reliance, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Americans and America.

    Abraham Lincoln et al. destroyed American freedom and the Constitution.

    Abraham Lincoln et al. forced the Communist Manifesto and the “dictatorship of the dependent and parasitic workers” on America.
    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    “They consider…that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln…to lead his country through…the RECONSTRUCTION of a social world.”

    – Letter From Karl Marx to Abraham Lincoln, 1865
    ________________________________________

    proletariat
    noun
    pro·​le·​tar·​i·​at ˌprō-lə-ˈter-ē-ət
    -ē-ˌat

    1: the laboring class

    especially : the class of industrial workers who lack their own means of production and hence sell their labor to live

    2: the lowest social or economic class of a community

    1. Call your local pest control company.

      Ask the representative what the company would do about a pervasive and intractable infestation in your home.

  10. So if your name is Christine, you can be put in the stocks and flogged for the Crusades? Or wait, the Inquisition! Off with their heads.

  11. “At this time, the Vanguard School Board and the District have informed the student’s family that he may attend school with the Gadsden flag patch visible on his backpack.”
    ******************************
    A statement so typical of the arrogant governmental mindset. Truth is that the Constitution “requires” that he may attend school with the Gadsden flag patch visible on his backpack, the wishes of the School Board notwithstanding. Damn school flunkies thinking they bestow his rights through their largesse.

    Reminds me of Marquis St. Evremonde’s line in Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities” as he is complaining about a 4-year-old child who died after being runover by his carriage: “It’s extraordinary to me that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you is forever in the way. How do you know what injury you might do to my horses?”

    1. He “MAY”. There are only two classes, authoritarians and those who believe in “live and let live”; what the authoritarians consider their property.

    3. Our would be overlords & slavemasters just need us to get in their van & put the cuffs on & everything will work great & take the 9th/10th round of their big pharma bug soup shot.

      After all, they love their Chattel to death! LOL;)

      Im glad I read as much of that Dickens/etc., when I was a little kid. Things were pretty good before the internet. We use to read & go play war in the weeds, play ball & brothers beat the hell out of each to toughen them in case of the never ending battles the overloads always bring…..

      They can come on in, the waters great. 😉

  12. This reminds me of the seizure and re-defining/re-understanding of “You people” and “master bedroom.”
    I really doubt that young couples looking to buy their first house today will think that the “master bedroom” reflects, connotes, or is in any way intended to imply hidden racism—or would they even make any connection to such understanding?

    The real danger of indoctrination is that meanings and definitions are suddenly attached to things that we might not have even contemplated or considered before. That’s why young minds are the most susceptible/vulnerable.
    Hence, the efforts in the field of elementary education. To further that cause, even our elementary school dictionaries contain new, “contemporary” usages and meanings…a clever step to formalize/normalize/create authoritative confirmation of these new meanings/usages.

  13. Yocum reportedly cited research by a graphic design professor at Iowa State University Paul Bruski, who declared the flag as now a symbol of hate: “Because of its creator’s history and because it is commonly flown alongside ‘Trump 2020’ flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag as a symbol of intolerance and hate – or even racism.”

    Not a historian, not a sociologist, but a graphic design professor? Really? A guy who knows about colors and lines and image composition? And that’s the only authority the school relied on? Hahahaha!

  15. Regarding the update: I sensed that was coming when I read yesterday that some lawyers had reached out to the family about representing them, after the story hit the national and international media. Faced with having to defend the indefensible, the school board saw the light.

  16. They’re all part of the “They’re going to put you all back in chains” crowd. Recently Joe Biden said that he convinced Strom Thurmond to vote in favor of the civil rights act. At the time Joe was 21 years old. Even though Strom Thurmond never voted in favor of the civil rights act Joe must inflate his influence to match the biography of himself that he has created in his own mind. The unforgivable thing is that he thinks that black people are just to stupid to do a simple fact check to find out if he is just padding his resume. He has done so many times in the past. When he lays his head on the pillow at night he giggles to himself that the suckers will never figure it out.

  17. “Trump 2020’ flags, “. So you are throwing in other flags you are calling racist ?

    1. Outlaw All Flags, then only People who Outlaw them will have them.

    1. “Get the hell away from black people.”

      “Black people are a hate group.”

      – Dilbert

  19. They used to call parents to take girls home for wearing culottes. Now the boys wear skirts and no one tells the parents.

  20. The English hated this flag because it symbolized standing up against the power of the crown. The left hates this flag because it symbolizes standing up against the power of the leftist state. So what do they do? Just like with everything they do they paint it with the racist paint brush. It’s just another sad moment of panic because they are losing more and more of the black vote. One would think that because of their high morale ground the school board would stand on their principles but they didn’t. After all there are school board elections that won’t be won if they bravely stick by their actions. On occasion they make the mistake of crawling out from under a rock in the light of day. Sunshine is a much appreciated disinfectant.

    1. “Get the hell away from black people.”

      “Black people are a hate group.”

      – Dilbert

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