School leaders intervening in which flags a high school football team and its players carry onto the field before each game is dividing a California community just north of Los Angeles.
Saugus High School, a public school in Santa Clarita, California, just 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles, saw the school's leaders recently step in to halt the Centurions' practice of running onto the football field prior to each game with the 'Thin Blue Line' flag that is displayed as a show of support for police and law enforcement officers, according to a report from The Signal.
The media outlet reported that during a recent school board meeting for the William S. Hart Union High School District, leaders implored the flag be immediately removed from the Saugus Centurions' pre-game entrances. Per the report, the school system "received complaints" about the flag being flown by players — though the board did not divulge how many complaints were lodged.
The Signal said multiple area citizens weighed in on the matter at the district's meeting earlier this week.
Proponents of the flag being flown decried the notion that it is rooted in any kind of political statement.
Saugus High School has approximately 2,500 students.
“The flag, in my humble opinion, is no more political than a military flag or Vietnam veterans’ flag. It has been co-opted by some," Joe Messina, presiding officer of the Hart board, said per The Signal. “It has been now meant [by some parties] to be something negative and terrible.”
The system has not yet announced a resolution for the matter but has demanded the flag not be flown by the football team until a final answer.
John Brice has spent more than two decades covering football at all levels. Primarily focusing on the collegiate ranks in the SEC, including deep coverage of the Tennessee Vols’ program & work as a sideline reporter & TV analyst, plus coverage on the Notre Dame & Ohio State beats, Brice has seen about every kind of story. But he’s still looking to tell the really good stories, at least when he isn’t traveling with his wife.
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