The two Ohio teenagers who were suspended for holding “Thin Blue Line” and “Thin Red Line” flags on the football field ahead of a game on Sept. 11 stick by their decision.
“So in our eyes, we think we did the right thing,” Jarad Bentley, whose father is a firefighter, told Fox News in an interview on Wednesday.
Bentley and Brady Williams were both suspended from their team after carrying two flags in support of the 9/11 firefighters and police officers ahead of a game last Friday in defiance of school officials.
“We wanted to carry out flags to honor the first responders who went towards danger instead of running from it 19 years ago, and we were told no,” said Williams, whose father is a sheriff’s deputy. “We kind of took that to heart, and we still wanted to honor them. And so we did.”
“There was a big blowup,” Williams said.
The “blowup” was the two players finding out from their athletic director on Monday that they were suspended indefinitely from the football team. The suspensions caused a wave across the country as political figures expressed outrage.
“Absolutely unreal…,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted on Tuesday of their suspensions.
“These boys suspended for honoring our brave police and firefighters on 9/11. Someone raised them right. We need more standing up for what’s right & noble in our country. Shame on school officials,” former Republican Sen. Jim DeMint tweeted.
Williams added that it was “100%” worth carrying the flags despite the backlash they received.
“If I would have the chance to do it again, I would,” he said, adding that his father is his hero.
“I love what he does,” Williams said. “I’ve said since I was a kid that I want to be a police officer, and now, I even want to be one more.”
The two students were returned to “active status” on the team after school officials found their motivations behind holding the flags to not be political in nature.
“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,” Little Miami school board President Bobbie Grice said. “Moving forward, Little Miami is returning the players to active status, and this matter will be addressed as an Athletic Department Code of Conduct issue, with any potential consequences to be handled by coaching staff.”
