A student in Minnesota was suspended for five days after an excessive display of patriotism. Now, he is fighting the suspension that could take away his scholarship with the Air Force.
According to ABC News, several students at Red Wing High School participated in an act of patriotism which involved writing phrases such as “USA,” “GOD BLESS AMERICA” and “NEVER FORGET 9/11” on windows and doors in the school as well as placing 150 mini American flags around the school and hanging red, white and blue streamers.
Bryce Reps was the leader of the students, and therefore was the only one who received five days in suspension – the others received only two.
"My suspension is more severe than for someone who shows up to school drunk or has drugs on them." Reps said. "There was never any intent to permanently damage anything. It was a prank. We just wanted to decorate the school to prove that we're patriotic.”
The school faces $2,000 in damages, since the chalk can't be cleaned off wood. The students were therefore punished for defacing property.
Reps is now trying to negotiate his five-day suspension, since as it stands, it would force the Air Force college program scholarship to withdraw his $15,000 scholarship to the University of Minnesota.
"They were treating it like the crime of the century," he said. "They're labeling it as vandalism. The word 'terrorism' was being thrown around. The doors needed to be repainted anyway."
The event took place as a part of homecoming week and the students' patriotic Monday, reports CBS Minnesota.
This isn't the first time Reps has fought with the school over patriotic pride. Red Wing did not remember 9/11 as they had in the past, so Reps wrote a letter to the editor of a local paper and rallied up signatures of 400 students, causing the school to agree to a moment of silence every year in the future.
"I really do love my country," Reps said. "We're all straight A's, National Honor Society students, not a group of bad kids making a bad decision."
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
