UPDATE: School reinstates 12-year-old Colorado student who was kicked out of class over Gadsden flag patch on backpack

UPDATE: The Vanguard School District has issued a statement backing the student and the "historical significance of the Gadsden flag and its place in history…VSD and the District have informed the student’s family that he may attend school with the Gadsden flag patch visible on his backpack."

Original story follows:

On Monday, a student was kicked out of class at his Colorado Springs charter school after a small Gadsden flag patch on his backpack caused concern among administrators. 

The 12-year-old, identified only as Jaiden, was told that the flag violated school policy regarding the displaying of symbols that "refer to drugs, tobacco, alcohol, or weapons," and that he had to remove the patch if he wanted to return to class.

"The reason we do not want the flag displayed is due to its origins with slavery and the slave trade," an administrator said during a secretly recorded meeting with Jaiden and his mother.

"It has nothing to do with slavery," Jaiden's mother pushed back. "That's the Revolutionary War patch that was displayed when they were fighting the British. Maybe you're thinking of the Confederate flag?"

She went on to slam the school for exercising a double standard when it came to political symbolism, with Jaiden adding that many other children display patches on their backpacks and are not punished for it.

The administrator said she was simply following district policy, and advised Jaiden's mother to contact the school's director Jeff Yocum, who could refer her to people at Harrison School District 2.

"You're going over the revolution for seventh grade," Jaiden's mother said, adding, "the founding fathers stood up for what they believed in against unjust laws. This is unjust."

In subsequent email correspondence, Yocum told Jaiden and his mother that the flag was "tied to the Confederate flag and other white-supremacy groups." To prove his point, he cited sources that admitted that while the symbol "originated in the Revolutionary War in a non-racial context," it "has since been sometimes interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages."

Many on X were quick to side with Jaiden and his mother, pointing out that the rattlesnake imagery on the Gadsden flag was inspired by Benjamin Franklin, who "spent the latter part of his life petitioning Congress to free the South's slave."

The Culpeper Minute Men, who also used the symbol, "incorporated 14 black and Native men and a black flagbearer—a greater 'diversity' than many other regiments," according to Tony Kinnet, an investigative columnist of the Daily Signal. 

Jeff Yocum and the Vanguard School have been reached for comment.