On Sept.16, 2021 a student at Gallatin High School came to school with a Mexican flag. The boy was proud of his heritage and excited because that day happened to be Mexico’s independence day. Not long after the student arrives the school principal, Ron Becker, comes up to the boy and tells him to take his flag down. “The only flags you are allowed to fly are the American flag or the GHS flag” and he demanded that boy to take the flag down. 

This occurrence has caused an outrage with the student body-but more specifically- the Latino students of the school. More than half of the school’s students are POC and the fact that Dr.Becker thought it was a good idea to say something like this baffles the minds of the students. Dr.Becker has made an announcement that the only flag that should be flown are the American flag, GHS flag, and the TN flag. He has yet to take accountability for what he has said. Instead of addressing the situation he said that it was an “unspoken rule” that only the American flag, GHS flag, and TN flag can be flown. It’s absolutely absurd.

This Friday Sept. 24th, 2021 the students have organized that day to be “Culture Day” , where students bring their flags from different countries and show Dr.Becker that the school is rich with diversity and different cultures. It won’t be enough to show him that what he said was wrong. We need to to make him understand that telling students to not wave their countries flag is not only disrespectful to the student, but to that country as well.

Our end goal is to get Dr.Becker to realize what he said was wrong, take accountability for it, and remove the school policy of prohibiting other flags to be flown on campus grounds.