Patriotic Student Proudly Displayed American Flag in Dorm Window. Then, a University Employee Saw It

A University of New Mexico student says he was instructed by a school employee last week to remove an American flag he proudly had displayed from his dorm room window.

Image source: Screen grab via KOAT-TV

“UNM didn’t want to start drawing a line between what you can hang in public spaces, because you can see the flag from my window,” the student, Bobby Schofield told KOAT-TV.

Schofield said that one of the public university's resident advisers explained the policy was needed to keep students from displaying offensive material from their dorm rooms.

Image source: Screen grab via KOAT-TV

“He told me that if someone were to hang, say, the Confederate flag or a like a Third Reich flag, they didn’t want to have that showing," the student said. "And so to make it easier on them, they said no flags.”

[sharequote align="right"]"It's definitely a First Amendment violation for them to have to take down any kind of flag."[/sharequote]

The school's handbook states that “room decorations are to be in the interior of your room and may not extend into public spaces." A university spokesperson told college news website Campus Reform that "a window is considered 'public space.'"

Nevertheless, some students consider the order to remove the flag to be a First Amendment violation.

"It's definitely a First Amendment violation for them to have to take down any kind of flag. I think it's ridiculous," student Ryan Taylor told KOAT.

“There are probably some things that cross the line somewhere, but in general yeah what’s wrong with it,” another said.

(H/T: Campus Reform)

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