By: Sabrina Ahmed
sahmed@klkntv.com
The new rules say schools must allow time for the pledge of allegiance to be said in the presence of an American flag. However, more than 500 classrooms don't have real flags.
Since the new mandate started at the beginning of the school year, schools have been using paper flags as substitutes until they can get real ones in every room.
After LPS announced the need in late august, they received some feedback from the community.
"We—there's a lot of support in Lincoln for getting flags in every one of our classrooms," LPS official Randy Ernst said.
LPS just figured out how to accept donations and started taking them yesterday. Twelve people are on a list, but the need is much greater than that.
"I don't think people realize that we lost dozens of flags in the fire and so this is one of the reasons that we are in need of the flags," Ernst said.
One school that needed flags got a surprise this week. A Southeast High School graduate donated about 400 dollars worth to the school.
"Seventy flags will go into classrooms then we have a few extras for some office areas like out main office and a couple of other areas that are fairly visible spots in the building," Principal Brent Toalson said.
Toalson said his school has also been using paper flags until now. While they were inconvenient, it was still good to have a symbol. He said the flags were well received.
"It'd be great to have the flags. Short of the flags, this is the best we could do and we feel like it was a good step.
In order to get all schools in the same standing as southeast, LPS still needs about 500 flags. Officials hope to have them by the time elections start in November.
The flags must be 24 in X 36 in. rayon flags. They run about 5 dollars a piece.
Click here to be directed to donation page on the LPS web site.
