Re: [OT] 12 year old British born girl punished for celebrating British culture

On 2025-07-16 10:02 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

Her entire school had a Cultural Diversity Day and all students were
told to wear something celebrating her own culture instead of the usual
school uniforms so she wore a dress that was essentially a British flag.
She was an A student but found herself punished for her choice of
clothing - along with other students - and her parents were called to
pick her up early.
>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE2jV5qxE4g [8 minutes]
>
Her parents were not at all happy and her community was very agitated as
well. The school gave an after-the-fact "apology" where they promised to
reconsider how the event was run the next year. I'll believe that when I
see it!
>

 I’ve seen that and it wasn’t clear to me if maybe she got punished under a
flag rule. When I was her age, it was illegal to wear clothing made from
the American flag.
 

There's no information in the video that suggests that it is illegal to wear clothing containing the British flag. If it is, there are millions of T-shirts that are in violation of that law. I've seen plenty of T-shirts celebrating one British band or another over the years that featured a British flag worn proudly by fans of the band in question.
Here is a Google images search of T-shirts with the British flag on them:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=t-shirts+containing+flag+of+britain&udm=2
There's a Beatles one near the top and a Def Leppard one somewhat farther down. I'm pretty sure the shirt that said "The Who - Maximum R&B" also contains a British flag but I haven't scrolled far enough to see that. (Of course most of these shirts are not about bands but are just general tourist souvenir - and proud Brit - clothing.)
Of course, wearing clothing that featured the *English* flag is a whole different kettle of fish! The flag that we see all the time representing the UK is an amalgamation of the flags of England, Scotland and Wales when they were separate countries (that sometimes went to war with one another) but when they settled all those disputes (more or less) and merged into the same country, the flag was a merger of the flags of England, Scotland and Wales. Flying the old flag of England - the St. George flag - is "problematic" in the UK these days. "Progressives" see it as representing a coarse nationalism steeped in racism.
I don't know if it is actually illegal to fly the English flag but I would expect AT LEAST to be soundly scorned by neighbours and passersby if you do.
Hmm, just out of curiousity, I did another image search for T-shirts with the *English* flag and got this:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=t-shirts+containing+flag+of+england&udm=2
A *lot* of those pictures are actually showing the UK flag, not the English flag, but there are some of the English flag too so it is presumably not illegal to have a shirt with that flag either. Here is just one:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/125623805527
I gather it is still a provocative flag to fly (and presumably wear) though.
Here is a VERY short video about that, just over a minute long:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLZ3kkKHqU
--
Rhino