What Do You Think?

[GurlRusz]

I have to wonder if the original issue was really over the child's safety. I find it difficult to believe that the issue would get this hyped if it was just that.

If it was a safety issue they would have said something like . . . we recommend that you remove the flag.
Apparently he was told he HAD to remove the flag or else.

The or else is what I would like to know about.


copied from:
http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-flag-boy-gets-parade-apology-a-111510,0,2712419.story

Flag Boy Gets Parade, Apology, and National Attention

Denair Parade This Morning to Honor Cody Alicea and His Right to Fly the American Flag

Brandon Mercer and FOX40 Staff FOX40 News

November 15, 2010


DENAIR —

He didn’t set out trying to get every patriotic person in America fired up. He just wanted to fly the flag on his bike, but 13-year-old Cody Alicea, aka "Flag Boy" has become a nationwide cause.

This morning, about a hundred people, including some coming in from the East Coast escorted Cody to school.

After arriving at Denair Middle School the group recited the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem.Watch the video here

The teen who was told to remove the American flag from his bike the week of Veterans Day is now back proudly carrying Old Glory, with the blessing of his apologetic school district, but that hasn't stopped an online army from rallying around the flag.

Practically every conservative Blogger in America, every Veterans group, every patriotic group, and pretty much the entire state of Texas has been Tweeting, Facebooking, and emailing about the flag flap. FOX40's website has seen exponential traffic on the story, breaking all previous records for the most clicked on single story in station history.

A Texas online group supported by Rhonda Lyn, Texas Times Today is asking supporters to mail 1,000,000 small U.S. flags to the school to show support for the flag, and teach the school a lesson about messing with the Stars and Stripes.

A veteran with friends at Beale Air Force Base is arranging to have a pilot fly a flag and mission patches in a U-2 plane to deliver to Cody.

More support is flooding Facebook. One Facebook group is called Send Cody Alicea to Washington, D.C., started by Mike Epstein. Another cause is Protect Cody Alicea's Right to Fly the American Flag on His Bicycle.

Supporter Greg Hamilton from Reno started this website FlagsforCody.com, along with a Facebook “Cause” page, flagsforcody.

The groups trying to raise money for Cody may be able to pause their efforts, though. Newly elected Congressman Jeff Denham offered to take Cody with him for his swearing in ceremony in January, saying, "This is an outrage. Denair Middle School's anti-U.S. Flag policy is anti-veteran. It's ridiculous to think that displaying the U.S. Flag somehow creates ‘racial tension.' This is America! Many American men and women have given their lives to defend our right to fly the Flag. Cody should have that right, too." Denham is a 16-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

Comments left on FOX40.com have included the phone numbers and email addresses for school officials, and they effectively shut down communications at the school Friday. Phone lines were blinking non-stop, and the website was offline.

"I'm glad so many people are on my side who thought I should be able to fly the flag," Alicea told FOX40 News after he rode home with the flag flying behind him on a short pole. Cody had been riding his bike to school for about two months with his flag attached to it. Earlier this month he was asked to remove it by a school employee.

Ed Parraz, the Superintendent of the Denair School District, said a school supervisor asked Cody to take down the flag. The supervisor will not be fired or face repercussions. Parraz says the supervisor had information that Cody Alicea's safety was at risk because of the flag.

Some students had reportedly complained about it and had apparently made threats. "The last thing we wanted was to deny Cody his rights," said Parraz speaking about the boy's wish to fly the American flag.

Parraz said national flags were banned from campus after a Cinco De Mayo incident when tensions escalated between students displaying the Mexican flag and those waving the Stars and Stripes.

"I think it would be irresponsible of us if we kind of shined it on and let him have the flag and he got jumped or something like that and got hurt," said Parraz. But Alicea said, "I never feel threatened or unsafe while flying the flag."

He was greeted by a swarm of media outlets when he got out of school Friday. At home he did more interviews with print, radio and television reporters, including FOX News Channel.

He was a bit unnerved by all the attention, but his biggest concern was that Parraz was being villified. "I don't want him to be fired. I know where he was coming from. I like him. He's a nice guy," said Alicea.

Parraz says they have decided to focus on those students who are causing the problem, not the flag and Cody is now allowed to ride onto school campus with Old Glory on the back of his bike. Parraz is aware of the outcry across the nation over this story. He says they embrace the American flag, they are patriotic, but that their main priority is keeping students safe.

Alicea's family has a long history of military service and he wants to join the Air Force when he is older.

[GurlRusz]

another article on the same topic:

copied from:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/30012

Cody Alicea Old Flag Boy Gets Parade and Apology
The change that matters most comes from a schoolboy
By Judi McLeod
Monday, November 15, 2010

The sincere tears of a patriotic child on Monday, November 15, 2010 eclipsed most of the politics-as-usual morning news. On an average but no longer not-so-ordinary school day, the news from Denair, Stanislaus County, Ca, eclipsed even the recent hurtful comments of a president about his own country. And totally eclipsed those unkind cuts against America on the president’s second day back from a mega-million-dollar Asian trip.

A schoolboy made manifest American’s growing unease with the anti-American style coming from the White House, moving the punishment of schoolboy patriotism up to the front burner.

While in India, the president seemed almost gleeful that America is losing its status in the world. Today in front of his school, 13-year-old Cody Alicea was anything but gleeful that love for Old Glory is being challenged by politically correct times.

Cody Alicea is average in the way of youngsters whose parents instill in them love for God, country and family.

Never in his wildest dreams did Cody imagine he would ever be escorted to school by war veteran bikers, some from out of state, proudly displaying the American flag.

But then neither did Cody think that after two months of flying the flag on the back of his bicycle that he would be ordered by school authorities one day after Veteran’s Day to remove it—even though Cody, like many other youngsters in his age group, must attend class in a school system fraught with Marxist indoctrination.

This was not to be just another flag flap an apology and time could erase from public conscience.

Cody led a parade in his honour from the center of his hometown of Denair this morning to his middle school campus, where he was joined by supporters who recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the national anthem.

In the end not only did Cody with his proud flag ride into American hearts, he held up what so many paid for with their lives and what so many left will always continue to hold dear.

Let it be recorded that change in America comes not from a politician, but from a 13-year-old boy whose love for his country is like Old Glory itself, bravely unwavering.