A group of Oklahomans gathered in large numbers at the city’s high school, armed with American flags on their vehicles, to protest after a student was told he was not allowed to fly the American flag on his truck on school grounds.

Caleb Horst, a 12th-grader at Edmond North High School, said school administrators told him on Aug. 21 that he was prohibited from flying the American flag freely on his pickup truck, even though the teen said he had been flying it “for quite a while,” according to KOCO.

“I’ve never really had a problem with it, and since it’s our First Amendment, it’s pretty difficult for them to violate our rights,” Horst said.

In the Edmond Public Schools district, it is “customary” not to fly flags on vehicles and not to signal “the American flag or patriotism,” the outlet reported.

The school said the “practice” – not a policy – is to “prevent disruption and distractions” and is enforced to “create a safe school environment as flying flags on vehicles creates safety issues.”

“To be clear, this is not about the American flag or patriotism. Edmond Public Schools proudly and appropriately displays the American flag in front of each of our buildings and in our classrooms,” the school district said in a statement Thursday before the protest.

The district stated that flying flags on vehicles on school property is prohibited and that this “practice” has been going on for “several years” and is “explained” to students at the beginning of each school year.

Still, the feeling that the high school senior’s patriotism was being stifled sparked outrage among Edmond students and community members, who showed up in the school parking lot Monday morning before classes began to show their American pride.

After learning of the planned demonstration, the district sent emails to parents of high school students warning them not to participate in the planned protest.

On Monday, around 7 a.m., more than 50 vehicles gathered in the school parking lot to peacefully protest school policies and even recite the Pledge of Allegiance during the demonstration.

“At the end of the day, we are all Americans, all united under this flag, and there is nothing anyone can do to divide us,” Horst said.

High school student Vance Miller said he decided to participate in the protest because he has a “brother in the military” and the issue “touched” him.

“It represents us, it represents unity, it represents us as one, and it is our freedom. There are people who fight and die for this flag every day, and that’s why I think we should be allowed to fly it,” Miller declared.

“It would be different if we wanted to make a political statement, but there is nothing political about it.”

Miller said he believes the flag “represents us, it represents unity, it represents us as one and it represents our freedom. There are people who fight and die every day for this flag and that’s why I think we should be allowed to fly it.”

But the uproar over students being banned from flying American flags on their vehicles was not limited to the public.

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters wrote to X that his office is “working on guidelines” to be issued to all districts “to ensure that no student is ever targeted for possession of an American flag” and that the Edmond Public Schools district has “a lot of explaining to do.”

“We’ve seen parents all over the state who are tired of people, young people, being told to hate their country or not be proud of their country,” Walters told 9 News on Monday.

“We want our young people to be proud of our country. It seems like there are a lot of patriotic students at our school and we want to encourage them to show love for the country.”

Local lawmakers also announced that they had asked the county manager to update his policies.