CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - Students at a Coral Springs high school showed up to school, Friday morning, with flags from their home countries in support for a fellow classmate who was internally suspended for flying her national flag at school.
“Nobody should get their flag taken away,” said one student.
“Everyone has a chance, deserve an opportunity to show our culture,” said student Othniel Saintoil.
The Taravella High School student, whose Haitian flag was taken away by the principal, tweeted out about the incident. Wednesday. “@jptprincipal: while we are proudly taking a picture representing Haiti, she comes and snatches our property.”
Along with the tweet were two pictures students said showed the school administrator confiscating the flags from students on “Haitian Flag Day.” The tweet went viral shortly after. Danitra has since deleted her post.
“She came out of nowhere and snatched our flags,” said the student who only wished to be called by her first name, Danitra. “She came into our personal space and snatched all of our flags.”
The school’s principal later tweeted an apology, but not before Danitra’s tweet was shared almost a thousand times.
“As you well know, we strive to support ALL of our STUDENTS & THEIR heritage’s. I feel bad that this happened. Sorry!”
https://twitter.com/jptprincipal/status/733049952457371651
Danitra said when she tried to talk to the administrator, Thursday morning, she was put in in-house suspension. “She told me I was ruining her reputation for posting it on twitter,” she said.
Many of Danitra’s classmates support her and said if she wants to fly a flag on Haitian Flag Day, she should be allowed to do so.
“I thought it was really disrespectful,” said senior Vanessa Ribeiro. “When you disrespect one country, all counties come at you.”
“They should be able to. That’s their right,” said another student, Jasmine Roberts. “Everybody has a right.”
Danitra, who’s on her way to UCF in the fall is angry and said the principal was in the wrong. “I don’t forgive her because it was still rude, and I just feel disrespected in the biggest way,” she said.
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