Two high school football players who were suspended for waving Thin Blue Line flags at a game earlier this month joined President Donald Trump on stage at a rally in Ohio.
Brady Williams and Jarad Bentley, seniors at Little Miami High School, were welcomed to the stage by a cheering crowd in Dayton on Monday night.
Trump called the teens ‘good looking men’ and said: ‘I want to congratulate you, you’re going to become famous.’
‘They’re going to go to Hollywood, they’re going to become movie actors,’ he told the crowd.
Williams and Bentley, both dressed in suits and patriotic masks, seemed star-struck and nervous as Trump asked them how their football season is going.
Trump laughed after one of the teens replied: ‘Could be better,’ to which the president responded: ‘You’re doing great and everybody out here loves you.’
Two high school football players who were suspended for waving Thin Blue Line flags at a game earlier this month joined President Trump on stage at a rally in Ohio on Monday night
Brady Williams and Jarad Bentley, seniors at Little Miami High School, were welcomed to the stage by a cheering crowd in Dayton. The teens appeared star-struck as Trump told them: ‘You’re doing great and everybody out here loves you’
Williams and Bentley made headlines last week after they carried Thin Blue Line and Thin Red Line flags onto the field at a football game to honor first responders who died on 9/11.
The two students had asked permission to display the flags before the game on September 11, and were warned not to do so.
But they went ahead with the plan anyway, prompting their suspension from the team.
School Superintendent Gregory Power said he had concerns that some see the flags as symbols of a political point of view.
Williams and Bentley made headlines last week after they carried Thin Blue Line and Thin Red Line flags onto the field at a football game to honor first responders who died on 9/11
Williams carried the Thin Blue Line flag, while Bentley carried the Thin Red Line flag
In an interview with WKRC-TV, Williams denied that the flags were meant as a political statement, saying: ‘Not at all. I was just doing it to honor the people that lost their lives 19 years ago.’
The boys were later reinstated to the team by the school board after public outrage.
Williams, whose father is a police officer, said he wanted to honor all the cops who lost their lives trying to save others during the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.
Williams carried the Thin Blue Line flag, while Bentley carried a Thin Red Line flag.
‘I was all for it,’ Bentley told the station. ‘Because my dad is a firefighter, and if it had been him killed on 9/11, I would have wanted someone to do it for him.’
Of the 2,977 victims killed in the September 11 attacks, 412 were emergency workers in New York City who responded to the World Trade Center.
But Superintendent Power said he didn’t want to set a precedent for allowing any flags at games aside from the school flag and the American flag.
‘We did not want to place ourselves in a circumstance where another family might want a different flag to come out of the tunnel, one that maybe many other families may not agree with from a political perspective,’ Power said.
The students asked permission to display the flags before the game, and were warned not to
The superintendent said he didn’t want to set a precedent for allowing any flags at games aside from the school flag and the American flag
The two students were informed of an indefinite suspension from the team on Monday, but on Tuesday the school board overturned the suspension and allowed them to return to active status.
In a message from the Little Miami Board of Education, President Bobbie Grice said the superintendent and the administrators had completed their investigation.
‘The results show that there were no political motivations behind this display of support for first responders on 9/11, but there were stances of insubordination.’
Grice said that the district was disappointed that the incident had overshadowed the planned commemorations for the game.
‘The district enjoys an outstanding relationship with our local police and fire agencies. In fact, the Patriot Night program Friday night featured a script recognizing first responders, information about what happened on 9/11, a poem celebrating those who sacrificed their lives and a remembrance ceremony with a moment of silence,’ he said.
‘We regret that such a moment of solemnity was somehow lost in this event.’
Source: Daily Mail
