Star-Mangled Banner': Wait Until You See the Decrepit Flag Flying Over a Harlem School

It's supposed to be Old Glory -- a symbol of American pride and patriotism. So why has the New York Post dubbed one American flag flying over a Harlem, NY public school the "star-mangled banner?" Take a look:

“As a military person and a veteran, I feel like it’s highly disrespectful to have a flag like that that the kids walk by every day,” Coast Guard Reserve Commander Sergio Villaverde, who first spotted the decrepit flag in January, told the Post. “It is just a bad lesson to teach our kids.”

Given Villaverde's outrage over the tattered flag hanging high above PS 28 for all to see, you would think the school would have done all it could to replace the eyesore, if not out of respect then for aesthetics. But not so. Even though the school's principal quickly responded to Villaverde and said “We didn’t mean to be disrespectful" and pledged to fix it, the flag apparently still remains.

“Not only is it not supposed to be up in that condition, but it’s supposed to be disposed of in a respectful way,” he told the Post, which noted the flag is not illuminated at night, which is required for those who do not take the flag down every day.

His repeated calls to the city's all-purpose hotline, 311, have also yielded no results. And when he contacted the Department of Education, it told him the issue was the local janitor's problem.

That itself seems to point to a larger problem, however.

(H/T: WNYW-TV)