Jaiden 'Don't Tread On Me' Flag Controversy

Submission 12,490

Overview

Jaiden Don't Tread On Me Gadsden Flag Controversy refers to the incident involving twelve year old Jaiden at the Vanguard school in Colorado Springs, Colorado between himself and his teacher. Due to Jaiden having the Gadsden Flag as a patch on his backpack, he was pulled out of class and told by school administration that he is not allowed to wear it to school, causing a controversy. In rightwing media outlets and online, Jaiden was used in memes as a Chad opposing the teacher as a stand-in for Woke Culture.

Background

On August 29th, 2023, the X user @cboyack^[1] uploaded a video in which a confrontation occurs between the teacher and Jaiden. The caption added additional context which states that the school and the director claimed that the Gadsden Flag had origins with slavery and that the patch on Jaiden's backpack was disrupting the classroom. This video was shared by various other accounts on X such as Libs of TikTok, which helped it gain over 12.5 million views in three days (shown below).

Developments

Later that day, X user @cboyack^[2] uploaded an update to the situation, with the Vanguard school board posting a letter stating that the Vanguard school was founded on the Constitution and American values, so the student was allowed to come back to the school with the Gadsden Flag patch on the backpack and no further action being necessary. The uploaded letter, which opened the floodgates for further memes and postings about the situation, was viewed over 1 million times in three days (shown below).

The following day, on August 30th, 2023, the X user @EndWokeness^[3] uploaded a video of Jaiden speaking more on the situation since being allowed back into the school. In Jaiden's words, the other kids were Hype to see him back and trending online, whereas the staff and faculty that previously admonished him and the flag patch weren't excited to have him back (shown below).

Online Reactions

On August 29th, the X user @MostlyPeacefull^[4] uploaded a screenshot from the initial video as a QRT, showing Jaiden looking at the camera, and superimposed the Gigachad head on top of his, signifying that him standing up for his beliefs and having memes on his backpack made him a Gigachad, with the post receiving over 3,000 likes in three days (shown below).

On August 31st, 2023, Jaiden appeared as a guest interview on the Benny Johnson program The Benny Show, where he talked more about the school staff and showed a picture of him posing his backpack next to the teacher's car who pulled him from class, showing several political bumper stickers prominently displayed as a way of trying to show bias against him. This interview segment was posted by the official @BennyJohnson^[5] account on X, where it received over 50,000 views in three days (shown below).