DES MOINES, Iowa – Administrators at East High School in Des Moines threatened to tow a student’s car from the parking lot over a Confederate flag affixed to the vehicle’s antenna.

“This morning, an East High School student displayed a confederate flag on his vehicle while parked in the school parking lot,” Des Moines Public Schools spokeswoman Amanda Lewis emailed The Des Moines Register in a prepared statement.

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“Similar incidents involving the confederate flag last year led to fighting, and other material and substantial disruption of school. Therefore, East High School staff acted reasonably and appropriately when they asked the student to put the flag away,” Lewis continued. “Rather than remove the flag, the student voluntarily moved his vehicle off campus.”

The unidentified student’s reaction, however, makes it clear the vehicle’s removal was not voluntary. The student told KCCI officials threatened to tow the car if the Confederate flag remained.

“It’s not racist, it’s just history,” the student said. “I have the right to fly what I want.”

Lewis told the news site the Confederate flag ban boils down to a safety issue.

“DMPS supports student expression,” she said, “but the district’s first priority is and always will be maintaining a safe and orderly school environment for student learning.”

Numerous schools across the nation have banned Confederate flags for the sake of political correctness in recent months, and many cite student safety and a potential for disruption for the censorship, EAGnews reports.

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The bans became a trend after a racially motivated shooting at a Charleston, South Carolina church last summer that left nine black parishioners dead. The alleged gunman liked to pose on Facebook with the Confederate flag.

Students in Michigan, Texas, North Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, Georgia and other states have faced disciplinary action in the year since for flying Confederate flags from their vehicles. Many schools have banned students from displaying the Confederate flag at school – on their vehicles or clothing, while others have worked to rename schools honoring Confederate heroes.

Most recently, Vanderbilt University spent $1.2 million to scrub the word ‘Confederate’ from a student dorm that had honored Tennessee residents who died in the civil war for the past eight decades.

The bans are centered on an effort not to offend black students, some of which view Confederate symbols with connotations to the nation’s history of slavery. Proponents of the Confederate flag, meanwhile, argue that the symbolism simply honors southerners who died in the civil war.

The situation has since devolved to include bans on American flags, which some school administrators believe are offensive to Hispanics and other students.

This week alone, police at two high schools forced students toting American flags to leave their patriotism in their vehicles, EAGnews reports.

One of those schools – Travelers Rest High School in South Carolina – reversed the ban on students with American flags at games after the news site helped to create an online firestorm that convinced officials to reconsider their approach.

“Instead of restricting possession of the flag, the TRHS administration will, if needed, address the misuse of the flag, or any other inappropriate behavior, on an individual basis,” Greenville County Schools spokeswoman Beth Brotherton told The State.