A 12-year-old neighbor of state Rep. Joe Rice asked him if he would please fix a law that prohibits the boy’s school from flying foreign flags.
So Rice, D-Littleton, invited Ty Baker, a student at Goddard Middle School, to testify Monday as a House committee endorsed a bill to let schools to fly flags of other countries.
A host of foreign flags were once on permanent display in the gymnasium at Baker’s school. But when his principal learned of a state law prohibiting such displays, she removed them.
“Now we have a flag of the week,” said Baker, who wore a suit and tie, folded his hands on the table in front of him and addressed the head of the House Education Committee as “Mr. Chair.”
State law makes it a petty offense to display any flag but the American, Colorado or local flags on public buildings, including schools.
The law was little-known until last summer when Carmody Middle School teacher Eric Hamlin was yanked from his geography classroom in Jefferson County for refusing to remove Chinese, Mexican and United Nations flags.
Temporary displays for instructional or historical purposes are exempt, but the school principal did not consider Hamlin’s display temporary enough.
The proposed legislation removes the petty crime involving flag displays and would allow school boards to adopt their own flag policies.
The bill would “simplify life for our classroom teachers who are trying to teach students to succeed in the global economy,” said Rep. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, who is sponsoring the bill with Rep. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora.
A group of students from Littleton High School’s political committee also asked lawmakers to change the law, said Rice.
The legislation also would permit the display of prisoner-of-war and missing-in-action flags.
The bill passed the education committee 11-2 and is headed to the full House.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
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“Now we have a flag of the week.”
Ty Baker, a student at Goddard Middle School, who testified Monday as a House committee endorsed a bill to let schools fly flags of other countries
