California moms defend students' right to fly 'Thin Blue Line' flag after football players defy ban
The flag was introduced after law enforcement saved students during a deadly 2019 school shooting in Santa Clarita
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Santa Clarita parents took a stand to defend Saugus High School students' right to fly the "Thin Blue Line" flag after football team members defied a new policy banning the symbol at games.
"Unfortunately, [the school is] catering to the progressive left, which is trying to further their agenda and propaganda," mom Nancy Fairbanks told Pete Hegseth on Saturday's "Fox & Friends Weekend."
A coach made the decision in September to stop displaying the flag after some claimed it invoked messages of racism and division. Supporters argue the flag has no divisive qualities in its support for law enforcement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL BOARD MEETING ATTENDEES CLASH OVER ‘THIN BLUE LINE’ FLAG
The Saugus High School football will no longer carry the "Thin Blue Line" flag at football games, the school district said. (Google Maps)
"It wasn't a racial issue, but they're making it a racial issue, and that's very sad," said another concerned mom Cindy, who chose to redact her last name.
For Saugus High School, the "Thin Blue Line" flag holds special meaning after local law enforcement saved multiple victims after a deadly shooting took place at the school in Nov. 2019.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's disturbing that my community and an organization would bully and harass a high school student for simply carrying a 'Thin Blue Line' flag for saving his friends," Fairbanks said.
"They're missing the point. These kids have been through enough," Cindy added. "They're just using their First Amendment to honor their friends' lives at school – nothing more, nothing less."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An unfurled pro-law enforcement ‘Thin Blue Line’ flag. (iStock)
William S. Hart High School District superintendent Mike Kuhlman wrote in a statement that "the Governing Board can choose to consider new or revised Board Policy at a future meeting… Any potential disciplinary response can be addressed at the site level…"
"I do hope our focus and attention can remain on the kids," he added.
Cindy and Fairbanks pushed back against the superintendent's statement, saying they are fighting for students' right to free speech and vowing to attend future school board meetings in protest.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We're there for the kids," Cindy said.
Football team members pushed back against a coach's previous ban by carrying the flag onto the field at a late October game, further igniting the already-existing clashes between the flag's supporters and its critics.
FLORIDA HS FOOTBALL GAME THAT FEATURED THIN BLUE LINE FLAG, ANTHEM KNEELING ENDS IN BRAWL
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"For [my son], he thought he was doing the right thing and being respectful and appreciating the law enforcement community as a whole," Saugus High School mother Lexi Hawk said during an October appearance on "Fox & Friends."
"First and foremost, people have written to us and said that the ‘Blue Line’ flag does not belong on any football field, any sports field, on any field, which is not true, not right," said Joe Messina, a member of the school board, during a heated Nov. 2 school board meeting. "There is a constitutional right to be able to wear those things at those events."
Others doubled down on their disdain for the flag, including Valerie Bradford, president of the Santa Clarita Valley branch of the NAACP.
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"We are here today to stand for the parents and the students that have spoken out against what's happening at Saugus High School and that is the presentation of them bringing the ‘Thin Blue Line’ flag out on the field," she said, according to Fox 11 in Los Angeles.
"It makes students feel uncomfortable, and they reached out, so we're here in support of that," she added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.