A high school in Florida has banned its football team from flying the “Thin Blue Line” flag, deeming it inappropriate after the athletes flew the pro-police flags on the field to honor one student’s dead police officer father. A “racist” flag?: Fletcher High School’s football team, the Fletcher Senators, had flown the flag during 11 games of the 2019 season and flew it again during a game last week. The team flew the flag to honor former Jacksonville Beach police officer Cpl. Andy Lavender who died last August. His son, Caelan, is an offensive lineman for the team. The move triggered a deluge of critical remarks online with users accusing the school of being “openly racist” for allowing the team to wield the flag. “Thin blue flag shown at Fletcher High School game, a lot of students aren’t happy,” one person wrote on social media, News4Jax reported. The complaints prompted the school to ban the flag. Caelan’s mom, Lorie Lavender, said in a statement: “It is all about my son’s love for his dad and his memory.” “He was one of a kind,” Lavender said of her late husband. ‘And he is very much missed and loved.’ Steve Zona, the president of the Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police, condemned the school’s ban, saying Capt. Lavender was a respected member of the community and had even coached some of the players. “This is a prime example where it was as innocent as can be, there is no politics involved, no us versus them, simply to honor a great man and allow his kids in the football team to honor him, and they have taken those, hijacked it and called it racism,” Zona told News4Jax. “And now the son and these kids are suffering because of it.”...MORE
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