A school district in Tennessee banned students from displaying all flags and banners — including the American flag, according to Fox News.

“While this is not necessarily an attack on the American flag, there were some other issues we’re trying to address,” Steve Sorrells, Dickinson County director of student services, said. “It’s not an unpatriotic act, by any means, because we have a number of ways in which students do learn how to be patriotic and express American pride,” Sorrells said.

The district created the ban in the midst of the Confederate flag controversy that is currently going on across the country. Many of the district’s students were showing up to school with Confederate and American flags attached to the back of their cars and trucks. Rather than simply banning the Confederate flag, the district decided the best option would be to keep students from flying any flag, although there is still an American flag on the flagpole outside of the high school.

While the school district may not be trying to attack the American flag, they actually are attacking it. Banning students from displaying the American flag, which is a symbol of pride and freedom in our country, is an unpatriotic act — no matter how you try to justify it.

Many students are angry at the school’s decision to ban the flag, and they have a right to be. They say that their patriotism and freedom of speech are being taken away.

“I just think that’s a right. It’s freedom of expression, and I don’t think you should be able to take that from us,” high school senior Arianna Heisler said to Fox News.

It is one thing to ban the Confederate flag, but taking away United States citizens’ right to display a symbol of their own country, the American flag, is simply wrong.

If someone wants to fly an American flag, let them fly it. If someone wants to fly a Confederate flag, let them fly it. If someone wants to fly a rainbow flag, let them fly it. People may get offended, but people need to be allowed to display what they believe in.

It is one thing to ban the Confederate flag, but taking away a United States citizen’s right to display a symbol of their own country, the American flag, is simply wrong.

Many people across the country are attacking the American flag and even going as far as burning it because they believe that it is a symbol of the injustices that have occurred in the country. They see it as being something that symbolizes racism, sexism and police brutality. These people are forgetting that the American flag really symbolizes all of the great accomplishments that our country has made.

To me, the American flag symbolizes the veterans and current soldiers that fight for our right to be free. It symbolizes the United States moon landing in 1969. It symbolizes the men and women that work hard every single day to provide for themselves and their families.

The flag symbolizes the women that protested and gained their right to vote in 1920. It symbolizes the fact that we are considered the land of the free and home of the brave. The American flag symbolizes so many great things, not people’s personal injustices that they are facing.

People can try to take away our right to fly the American flag, but I know that I will always proudly display it. We need to be proud of the country that we live in and try to fix our problems, rather than complain and not doing anything about them. Taking down the American flag will not fix the injustices that you are facing; it will only cause more arguments.

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