by Holden Kurwicki

Parents of a Shelby County teen are outraged after their son was asked to leave school for refusing to remove the Confederate flag from his truck.

Joseph Garrett claims he's driven to school over the last few months with both a Confederate Flag, and American flag flying in the back of his truck, and not had any issues.

However that changed on Tuesday, and his parents say they feel the tension created by the removal of the Confederate Memorial near the University of Louisville is to blame.

Joseph Garrett is a typical student at Collins High in Shelby County.

“I get A’s and B’s,” Joseph Garrett said.

Like your average 16 year old, he loves driving his truck.

However on Tuesday he says administrators at Collins High took issue with the way he decorates it.

“I decided to put my Confederate flag with my American flag on my truck for my uncle,” Garrett said. “The first day there were complaints and they told me to take it down. They told me to take it down, or they were going to have to.”

After he refused, Garrett said he was sent home and told he couldn’t drive his truck to school the rest of the year.

“It’s my right to have it up, and for it to stay up,” Garrett said.

A district spokesman said it is school policy not to comment on student disciplinary matters, but will ask for the removal of anything disruptive to the educational process.

Joseph's mother Christal said she feels he’s done no wrong.

“If I felt like he did something purposefully to hurt somebody else he wouldn’t be driving,” Christal Garrett said. “He wouldn’t have a cell phone. He would have an 8 o’clock bed time, and the only thing he would have to do is read a book.”

As support pours in for her son, Christal said she feels as if school administrators looking at this situation out of context.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the monument coming down,” Christal Garrett said. “I feel like before it wasn’t an issue with him flying his flag.”

“They’re drawing more attention to the flag than it should be,” Joseph Garrett said. “It’s not a big deal, but they’re making it out that it is.”

After staying home from school on Wednesday Joseph was back in class on Thursday without any issues.

To be clear Shelby County School's do not have a policy directly banning the flag, but a district spokesman says in the past it has been deemed harmful to the educational process.