Principal Believes Flag Position Was Possibly Set Up To Create Controversy

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4)- An elementary school in Fort Collins is at the center of a controversy that sparked national interest, after a picture of where the U.S. flag was placed was posted on a blog.

Bauder Elementary School has been flooded with angry emails and phone calls from across the country after a website posted a photo that shows the U.S. flag hanging on a school wall below flags of other countries.

Bauder's principal said they don't know who placed the flag where it is in the photo, but that's not where it's supposed to be. He believes it's possible that the photo was set up to spark controversy.

"I believe that was done intentionally. They took a picture and then posted it on a blog and never said a word to any of my staff or myself that the flag was in the wrong position. Had they done that, I would have corrected it immediately and put it right back to its original perch," said Principal Brian Carpenter.

There are a lot of international students at Bauder, so the flags represent where the students are from. There are a couple of additional overflow flags off to the side of the main display, where the principal said the U.S. flag typically hangs high in the center.

"What we've got here, surrounding this eve, is most of our flags. And at the center, at the highest point, of this display, is the American flag. And it is always there out of respect for our country, always above the international flags. So we put it there purposefully. At some point in time, either before the school year started, or the first couple of days of school, somebody had removed the flag from this location and placed it in this location over here, next to the Saudi Arabian flag," said Carpenter.

The blog Greeley Report said the photo was sent in by a reader. The writer said it's an outrage and example of public school indoctrination against the United States and Judeo-Christian traditions in favor of Muslims and other countries.

The school has had an increased police presence this week after the school and district administration received hundreds of angry emails and phone calls. The majority of those have been coming from outside Colorado.