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Title: Why Saugus High Football Team's Display Of Thin Blue Line Flag Has Community's Opinion Split
Lede: The display of a thin blue line flag during a football pregame ceremony at Saugus High School is revealing the growing political divide in the town of Santa Clarita. Some say the flag is championed by hate groups, while others say it is supporting law enforcement.
Topics: Thin Blue Line Flag, NAACP
Excerpts
INTRODUCTION
The display of a thin blue line flag during a football pregame ceremony at Saugus High School is revealing the growing political divide in the town of Santa Clarita. Some say the flag is championed by hate groups, while others say it is supporting law enforcement.
On Friday, Oct. 28, a player from Saugus High School ran alongside the field with the flag. It was met with applause and cheers.
Not everyone was pleased with the display, however. Valerie Bradford, the president of the NAACP for Santa Clarita, said the flag intimidated some students.
“It has been adopted by multiple right-wing extremist groups, racist hate groups," Bradford said. "And so when they carried that on the field, there were students that felt extremely uncomfortable by that.”
THE DISTRICT HAD PROHIBITED THE DISPLAY A MONTH AGO
The William S. Hart Union High School District superintendent Mike Kuhlman made a decision a month ago to prohibit the display. In a statement, he said the district supports both law enforcement and fostering a culture of inclusivity, kindness, and respect:
“While many embrace the symbol as simply a celebration of law enforcement, others have shared their feeling that the symbol has sometimes been co-opted by intolerant individuals with an agenda to divide and exclude.”
Both the NAACP president and the superintendent said prohibiting the display of the flag is not equal to being unsupportive of law enforcement. They both point to the November 2019 Saugus High School shooting which left two students dead, but many more were saved by law enforcement.
Bradford claims that in the aftermath of the shooting, the flag was not displayed. “[That] flag has not been carried over the past three years… then they only began carrying this flag about two months ago.”