Little Miami High School in Morrow, Ohio has been getting a bunch of attention this week after they suspended two football players after they carried “thin blue line” and “thin red line” flags across the field on Sept. 11 in defiance of school orders.
Players Brady Williams and Jared Bentley asked permission to carry the flags, but were told no, according to Local 12 WKRC-TV.
“Little Miami Local Schools is saddened to see this story take such a negative turn. While we understand these students’ desire show their support of our first responders, they did not obtain permission from district officials,” Little Miami High School said in a statement, according to Fox 19. “Administrators must act when students break the rules.”
In the wake of the news, a petition has now started to get those players reinstated and back on the field.
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It reads as:
“Brady Williams and Jarad Bentley wanted to honor 9/11 first responders ahead of Little Miami High Schools football game on Friday, September 11, 2020. As the team took the field for Friday night lights, they carried a Thin Blue Line Flag and a Thin Red Line Flag to honor the police and firefighters who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. On Monday, September 14, 2020, they learned their fate. Both student-athletes have been indefinitely suspended.
Brady, a senior cornerback whose father is a police officer, said that he was not trying to make a political statement at all in carrying the Thin Blue Line flag. “I was just doing it to honor the people that lost their lives 19 years ago,” he said.
Jarad — whose father is a firefighter — carried the Thin Red Line flag and told WKRC that he was thinking about his father at the time. “I was all for it,” he said. “Because my dad is a firefighter, and if it had been him killed on 9/11, I would have wanted someone to do it for him.”
Let’s support these young men by petitioning Little Miami High School to immediately reinstate their eligibility!”
