Education

Two High School Football Players Reinstated After Running Thin Blue Line Flag On Field

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Two Ohio high school students were reinstated on their football team after being suspended for disobeying an order to not carry flags supporting police onto the field, according to the school district.

Students Jarad Bentley and Brady Williams from Little Miami High School were suspended from the team after they carried a thin red line flag honoring firefighters and a thin blue line flag honoring police onto the football field Friday, according to TV station Local 12.

Both boys had previously requested the school to carry the flags onto the field, but their request was denied and they were warned of consequences if they disobeyed the order, according to the school

Williams carried the thin-blue line flag and he said it was to honor police who had died attempting to rescue people during the terror attacks on 9/11, Local 12 reported. Bentley carried the thin red line flag.

“I was all for it,” Bentley said, according to Local 12.

“Because my dad is a firefighter, and if it had been him killed on 9/11, I would have wanted someone to do it for him,” Bentley said, according to Local 12.

The students received a one-practice suspension while the incident was being investigated, Little Miami Local Schools spokeswoman  Melinda Briggs told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement.

Briggs told the DCNF that she was informed “the flags in question were not part of the original Patriot Night program for that evening. The team carries the American flag out of the tunnel at every game and coaches said no to any changes in the program.”

The students were reinstated back onto the team, the Little Miami Board of Education said in the statement provided to the DCNF. The coaching staff will be in charge of possible consequences, the district said.

“While the district understands these students’ desire [to] show their support of our first responders especially on the anniversary of 9/11, they did not obtain permission from district officials to do this,” Little Miami Board of Education President Bobbie Grice said in the statement.

“School administrators must act when students break the rules, and these students were suspended from practice while the incident was investigated,” Grice said.