Two High School Football Players Get Suspended After Carrying Thin Blue Line and Thin Red Line Flags

In Ohio, two high school football players intended to honor the fallen heroes who died in the 9/11 attacks. They tried to do so by carrying first responder flags onto the field before their game on September 11th. However, they were briefly suspended.

One of the two students is the son of a cop and the other is the son of a firefighter.

The football players took the field on “Patriot Night” and “brought a ‘Thin Blue Line’ and a ‘Thin Red Line’ flag with them, leading another teammate who carried an American flag,” reported Fox News.

Request Denied

However, according to the head of the Little Miami Local Schools Board of Education, their request for permission to carry the flags was denied by district officials.

The students found themselves suspended from the team on Monday.

When Local 12 asked Brady Williams, who was holding the Thin Blue Line flag, if he was “trying to make some kind of a political statement,” Williams said, “No. Not at all. I was just doing it to honor the people that lost their lives 19 years ago.”

Jarad Bentley, on the other hand, carried the Thin Red Line flag. “I was all for it,” he said. “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.”

The board of education and district administrators eventually agreed that the students’ gesture was not politically motivated. They overturned the athletic director’s suspension on Tuesday, as reported by Fox News.

“The results show that there were no political motivations behind this display of support for first responders on 9/11,” Board of Education President Bobbie Grice said in a statement. “But there were stances of insubordination.”

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