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A Southern California school backtracked on denying high school students from painting American flag designs on parking spaces for a fundraising auction.
"I got pretty upset about it because I love my country and I like to represent it everywhere I can," said Granite Hills High School senior Dane Gilbert, according to CBS8 "They said, wait on it because of flag code and other veterans in the school were not liking that the flag was on the ground."
Gilbert and five other students who proposed similar American flag designs were at first denied approval at the El Cajon school. The designs are part of a fundraising effort for the school, where students paint on parking spots that are then auctioned off.
"I wanted to do an American flag because I love representing my country," Gilbert added. "I love my country, and red, white and blue are my favorite colors."
Gilbert’s mother took issue with the denial, and posted about it on social media.
"Immediate anger set in and it wasn't a good conversation, I can tell you that," said Wendy Gilbert, according CBS8. "No American citizen or anybody should have to ask permission to show their patriotism in this country."
"This flag means freedom and nobody can take that away from us," she added.
The Grossmont Union High School District reached out to the local VFW, asking veterans for their perspective on the prospect of using designs depicting vets painted on the ground, after "veterans who now serve on our school staff raised questions about whether painting an American flag on a school parking spot … was appropriate treatment of the flag and whether it could be perceived as dishonoring to our brave veterans," the school district told Fox News.
The chaplain at the VFW post in El Cajon, Tom Dorsey, said he "immediately" told the district he had no objection to the designs.
"I told her immediately that I didn't have any disagreement with it," he recounted to the outlet. "I thought it was great that there are six young patriots out at Granite Hills High School that are proud to display the American flag."
Fox News also reviewed an email chain showing the principal of Granite Hills High School, Mike Fowler, reaching out to Dorsey asking if it would at all be disrespectful to veterans or the flag to paint the American flag on a parking spot.
"It means everything," Dorsey added. "When I was in Vietnam, as long as that flag was flying, we were fighting. If there was no flag up there, we were goners, so yea, it means a lot to me."
Fowler told the students on Monday that they could proceed with their patriotic designs after not getting any pushback from the VFW.
"Oh it was great," said Gilbert, who received the news on his birthday. "On my birthday and it was a great birthday present."
The school district told Fox News on Thursday that, "The idea that Granite Hills High School, at any point in this process, intended to censor their students’ patriotism rather than celebrate it is a gross mischaracterization of the facts."
"Principal Fowler, the husband of a 22-year Army veteran who deployed to Iraq, wrote to the local VFW asking ‘whether they believed our seniors’ painting of the American flag on their parking spot would be honoring and respectful toward our flag and the men and women who have fought and given the last full measure of devotion to ensure that our flag will forever fly and represent the land of the free and the home of the brave,'" the statement from Grossmont Union High School District added, noting "Principal Fowler described his pride in the 'six patriotic Granite Hills seniors who wish(ed) to express their deep love of our country by painting the American flag on their parking spot.'"
"One thing is crystal-clear though: every action the Principal took in this matter was out of deep respect for the flag and our veterans."
The incident comes as the perception of the American flag as a divisive symbol has spread to mainstream culture, with singer Macy Gray saying earlier this summer the flag should be updated because the current one is "tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect." A New York Times editorial board member, Mara Gay, also said in June during a segment on MSNBC that she was "disturbed" to see American flags during a trip on Long Island - a comment the New York Times defended.
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A California teacher was recently removed from her classroom after a viral video showed her admitting that she encouraged her students to pledge allegiance to a gay pride flag after she removed the American flag from the classroom because it made her "uncomfortable."
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