School cuts HS yearbook photo over American flag backdrop

A photo for a high school yearbook featuring the American flag is generating a red, white and blue controversy.

The photo shows Morgan Truax, a senior at Foxborough High School outside Boston, standing in front of an American flag backdrop and the trouble started when her mother shared it on Facebook Thursday and it quickly went viral.

“The Red Wing Diner, which employs Morgan, purchased a page in Morgan’s yearbook to congratulate her on her hard work,” Lisa Truax wrote, according to the Attleboro Sun Chronicle. “Does anyone find this photo offensive? Apparently Foxboro High School finds it offensive. They won’t allow the picture in the yearbook because it’s the American flag. We are American! We live in America! OMG what is this country coming to? Please share.”

School officials explained why they found the photo objectionable in a statement Thursday to Fox 25 in Boston.

"The photo showed the United States flag hanging on a wall with the lower portion lying on the floor and the student standing on the flag,” the statement said. “We do not view standing on the U.S. Flag as respectful or appropriate."

They also nixed an offer to crop the photo so no one would be offended, the station reported.

Truax updated her Facebook post Friday to say what appears to be a flag is really a backdrop in a commercial photography studio, the Sun Chronicle reported. She said her daughter chose the flag backdrop out of patriotism.

“Let me clarify,” Truax said in her updated post, according to the paper. “This is a commercially produced photography backdrop -- not an American flag. My 18-year-old daughter wanted to show her patriotism. The issue here is the explanation I received from FHS was, they will not allow this photo because they were uncomfortable with the American flag in the background. We truly mean no disrespect to FHS, the veterans, and the American flag.”

Foxborough principal Diana Myers-Pachla said there have been phone calls and emails, some from out of state, in support of the school.

She told the paper the school had been in contact with Red Wing’s owner to work out a mutually agreeable solution.

“It’s something that we’ve hoped for all along,” Myers-Pachla said.

It appears the deal will include the submission of a new photograph for the ad that a veteran has agreed to take after he reached out to Truax and her daughter.

Click here for more from Fox 25.

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