Ohio school denies that it threatened to suspend students for flying pro-Trump flags

Students from the National FFA Organization at an Ohio school were denied permission to fly Trump campaign flags from tractors on school grounds, though the school has denied ever threatening the students with suspension should they disobey that order.

Prior to the morning of a parade, students informed an adviser that political messages would be hung from the backs of their tractors.

The school district released a statement for participating FFA students, notifying that “once their tractors were on school grounds, as part of the FFA event they were to remove these political decorations,” according to a post on Facebook. The school district’s policy does not allow speech in favor of or against candidates, parties or issues. 

Students in the parade complied with the orders from Coldwater High School, flying their Trump flags for as long as they could before reaching school property, where the flags were willingly removed.

A video posted by Craig Lefeld, a manager at Kenn-Feld Group in Coldwater shows the start of the parade, with students taking off from a location outside of school grounds and flying their Trump banners along the way.

 “The school administration told them they were not allowed to drive their tractors into school with Trump flags on them or they would be suspended and ban all future FFA activities,” said Lefeld, who invited FFA students to begin the parade at a local tractor dealership.

“Just a group of kids standing up for what they believe in,” Lefeld said in the video. 

However, an update to the high school’s Facebook page affirms that “no students were told they would be suspended or that any activities would be canceled in relation to this,” denying Lefeld’s claims.

–Updated at 3:20 p.m.