UPDATE: Within four hours of the below story’s publication, administrators at Maryville University sought to clarify their school’s decision to disallow more than 500 American flags as part Maryville Young Americans for Freedom’s 9/11: Never Forget Project.
Reportedly, administrators cited a “miscommunication” about the previous decision which students had been told was “final.”
Now, administrators say that their school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter has their full support.
[STORY UPDATED 7 PM ET 9/10/19]
Administrators at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri, have moved to prevent the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter from fully participating in YAF’s iconic 9/11: Never Forget Project.
Samuel Dean, president of Maryville Young American for Freedom, followed proper channels to request the use of his school’s central quad to set up the 2,977 American flags—each representing one victim of the attacks of 9/11—on the 18th anniversary of the attacks.
Administrators responded to his request by rejecting the central location, and limiting the number of flags that would be allowed on campus to remember the innocent lives taken on 9/11.
Instead, Maryville administrators have bizarrely restricted the display to no more than 500 flags, and moved the location to a median area at an edge of campus that receives less student traffic and is less-accessible for members of the student body to pause and remember.
Employing what YAF calls the ‘Reagan Model’ of campus activism, Maryville YAF will be boldly moving ahead to set up the full 9/11: Never Forget Project as planned, complete with all 2,977 American flags.
“Young America’s Foundation is working closely with Samuel Dean and Maryville Young Americans for Freedom to monitor this situation,” stated Young America’s Foundation Spokesman Spencer Brown. “If Maryville University administrators only want 500 flags to be displayed in the memorial, they’ll need to rip 2,477 American flags out of the ground on the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.”
For additional information or to request an interview contact Young America’s Foundation Spokesman Spencer Brown via [email protected] or 800-872-1776.
