Flag Day in Denair

I didn't mention this story the other day, but since it's gotten so much attention let's take a look at how a parade of flags in Denair, CA this morning got its start:

13-year-old Cody Alicea rides with an American flag on the back of his bike. He says he does this to be patriotic and to honor veterans, like his own grandfather, Robert. He's had the flag on his bike for two months but Monday, was told to take it down.

A school official at Denair Middle School told Cody some students had been complaining about the flag and it was no longer allowed on school property.

"In this country we're supposed to be free," said Cody. "And I should be able to wave my flag wherever I want to. And they're telling me I can't." Cody had to take the flag off his bike and put it in his backpack, where he kept it all week.

Cody's grandfather says the school was concerned about racial tensions or uprisings because of the flag. He feels if there was really a problem it should have been brought up two months ago, not during Veterans week. And if it was an issue of safety, parents should have been contacted.

So basically, once again somebody gets "offended" and school district officials fall all over themselves to placate the complainers at the expense of common sense.

Well, once the story hit the blogosphere it exploded in the faces of the school officials and they had to quickly back down. Here's today's follow-up:

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.

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.

Cody rode his bike to school with his flag flying again this morning, and had a few friends along for the ride: