Pro-police flag at football game sparks debate

JOHNSTOWN — A flag carried onto the field by Northridge High School football players this month during a scheduled military appreciation night sparked a lively social media debate over several days and a meeting with administrators Thursday night.

The Vikings were riding a perfect record into their homecoming contest Sept. 8 at the small, rural school northeast of Johnstown, capped by a 51-7 victory over Lancaster’s Fisher Catholic.

Administrators say Northridge players asked in advance to carry a U.S. flag and a high school banner onto the field during the Fisher Catholic game. At some point, a Thin Blue Line Flag, known to some as a Blue Lives Matter Flag — it’s a black and white version of the stars and stripes with a blue line across the middle — was added to the mix.

What happened afterward was the subject of much online discussion. Students said they were told they couldn’t carry the Thin Blue Line flag onto the field or into the stands in the future. Parents quickly took issue with that, wondering why the school wouldn’t allow the team to show its support for the police.

“It blew up on social media,” said Sean Robson, whose son, Drew Mace, plays on the team. He added, “The boys, I think, are in the right. They’re standing for what they’re standing for.”

For many, the Thin Blue Line simply displayed respect and appreciation for the men and women of law enforcement.

“We just did it to show respect for law enforcement,” said Evan Willeke, a senior member of the football team. “They do a thankless job every day of the week, and it’s not often that we get to recognize the service that they do.”

But for others, the banner symbolizes hate, with fresh memories and widely circulated photographs of white supremacists holding it aloft during violence earlier this summer in Charlottesville, Virginia. Some view Blue Lives Matter as a countermovement to Black Lives Matter.

“There’s other ways you can support the police without using a symbol that way too many people, especially people of color, see as a symbol of hate,” said Sarah Baker, a Northridge graduate who still lives in the district.

The Northridge debate unfolded on social media for several days, coming to a head during a meeting between administrators and dozens of parents, football players and others.

During the hour-and-ahalf session, Superintendent Scott Schmidt and Athletics Director Justin Grieger apologized for the confusion and vowed to work with the team to accommodate any future shows of support for the community’s first responders.

They quashed any implications that racism was ultimately behind the team’s display.

“These boys did not carry that flag for any other purpose than to honor the police officers,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said no students were disciplined as a result of the flag carrying.

“There was never an intent to make anyone feel like they did something wrong,” he said. “No one has been reprimanded, and if they feel like they have been, I apologize.”

But Schmidt said the school and students need to work together in advance of such displays to ensure they’re appropriate and not misconstrued. In a letter he sent to parents, he wrote, “Without such a structure, individual team members could be running out on the field with a variety of flags, symbols or actions, some of which may not be appropriate, representative of or accepted by the Northridge community.”

He added Thursday night, “Yes, we want to be able to show support for our police officers, and we want to make sure that it’s very clear that that’s what the purpose is.”

For now, the school is planning an appreciation night for first responders for the Vikings home game on Oct. 6; men and women in uniform will be admitted to the game free that night.

“We have to put the past in the past,” said Troy Willeke, Evan’s father and a former school board member, who attended Thursday night’s meeting.