Jaiden Rodriguez, student removed from class for wearing a patch with the Gadsden flag: "They tried to trample on my rights"
The Colorado student maintained that the symbol he wore on his backpack has nothing to do with slavery.
Bandera de Gadsden en San Francisco (Magnus Manske)
Jaiden Rodriguez, a 12-year-old boy, went viral on social media after being kicked out of class for having a patch with the Gadsden flag on his backpack. The school claimed that, in its opinion, it is a symbol that has “origins of slavery.”
Now, Rodriguez is back in the news after talking with Ben Shapiro about what happened. In the interview, the boy said the school tried to "trample" on his rights. In addition, he said that several of his classmates are supporting him and began to put “Don't Tread On Me” stickers on their lockers.
"They don’t know what they’re talking about at all. It’s a revolutionary flag. It has nothing to do with slavery. It was meant as a warning sign not to tread on our rights in the revolution. Which is funny because they tried to tread on my rights and then they found out they [could] not," the boy said during the conversation with Shapiro.
The Vanguard School Principal Jeff Yocum admitted in an email that the flag originated in the Revolutionary War in a non-racial context. However, he assured that the historical origins and meaning of the symbol do not matter because, according to him, it has also been used for racial purposes. He argued that the patch was "disruptive to the classroom environment."
But the reality is that the flag is not related to slavery or racism. The flag was used during the Revolutionary War. This was confirmed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of the United States.
In fact, Colorado Governor Jared Polis also commented on the boy's case and argued that the flag is a symbol that emphasizes American values. "The Gadsden flag is a proud symbol of the American revolution and an iconic warning to Britain or any government not to violate the liberties of Americans. It appears on popular American medallions and challenge coins through today and Ben Franklin also adopted it to symbolize the union of the 13 colonies," Governor Polis commented on X (Twitter).
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