(PartiallyPolitics.com) A high school swimmer was disqualified from a race because of the patch he had worn in honor of his grandfather. Rob Miller, the 16-year-old sophomore at Morristown High School in New Jersey, father has said that the American flag patch that his son was wearing was deemed too large.
As Miller explained the patch had been in honor of his son’s grandfather who had died during 9-11 in New York. More surprisingly though, Miller’s son was not immediately told he would not be able to compete, in fact, the coach waited until the 400-meter free relay race had been fully completed before bringing up how distracting the patch was.
Miller described that this was exactly the problem, as this would mean that the burden had been placed on a 16-year-old who now had to let down the rest of his team members. Miller also added that this was the first time his son had selected that patch, which made the fact that he was caught and told not to compete even more unlucky.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations Swimming and Diving rules, there can be one American flag that does not exceed 2 inches by 3 inches. There is also the possibility for special memorial patches to be allowed and those can be up to 4 square inches. In his latest tweet, Miller said that he understood how it could be a political statement, regardless of everything else that occurred.
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