Edmond North High School Community Protests After Student Told To Remove American Flag From Vehicle

Dozens of students, parents, and other supporters gathered near Edmond North High School Monday morning for what they called a display of patriotism, unity, and freedom of speech.

It was all in response to a student being told he could not fly the American flag on his vehicle while on school property.

"We're using our First Amendment right and there's nothing wrong with that," one Edmond North student said.

Edmond Public Schools' decision to tell Caleb Horst, Edmond North High School senior, to remove the flag has been called an attack on patriotism, but the district says this was never about patriotism in the first place.

Horst made a post on Snapchat saying the school told him to remove the American flag from the back of his truck. “I just messaged out to people asking for support and to fly their flags too," Horst said.

It circulated online resulting in Monday's demonstration. "I didn't expect this many people, no. I expected maybe a couple of guys from school but not this many people," he said.

Horst says this all stems from wanting to be able to show his love for his country at school. "I was just confused and a little bit mad. This is the flag of our country it's not like I was flying some crazy flag. It's one that everybody stands under," he said.

The situation even caught the attention of State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who posted on X about the issue and spoke about it in a recent interview with News 9.

"We want you to show patriotism at our schools so we're looking at this right now, we're investigating it to figure out how in the world the decision was made to tell a young man to take an American flag off of his truck," Walters said last Friday.

The district said in a statement last week that flying flags on vehicles has always been against school policy and has never been about patriotism.

However, Horst says he hopes the demonstration brings a change to that policy.

“I just hope that they wake up a little bit and consider that it's not some crazy flag. People fought and died for this flag and that we're able to fly it," Horst said.

Edmond Public Schools confirmed the demonstration caused some traffic issues at drop-off Monday morning, but after the first hour there were no disruptions to the school day.

EPS has not released a statement in response to the demonstration, but you can read the district's full statement on the flag policy here:

“It is the practice of Edmond Public Schools to not permit students to fly or bring flags of any kind on our school campuses. This practice has been in place for several years and is explained to our students at the start of the school year along with various other policies and procedures. This is designed to prevent disruptions and distractions during the school day. It is also done in an effort to provide a safe school environment as flying flags on vehicles creates safety issues in the parking lot as well as can cause damage to other vehicles. 

To be clear, this is not about the American flag or patriotism. Edmond Public Schools proudly displays the American flag prominently and in the proper, respectful way outside each of our buildings and in our classrooms. Not only do we recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning as we start our school day, but we also present the colors and play the national anthem at most of our athletic events. All of these things are done in the proper fashion according to flag etiquette.”