A few day ago we published a photo of a local elementary school flying the Texas flag upside down. Here’s an update on that story.
As a quick review, the school closed for a two week holiday, leaving the Texas flag flying upside down on their shiny new flag pole. The flagpole has a lock box for the ropes, so there wasn’t a way to correct the problem.
The school opened back up on Monday, January 7, and I assumed the situation would be corrected quickly; I was wrong. Knowing things would be hectic for a few days because of the long holiday break, I decided to wait a little longer for the correction, but nothing changed.
Wednesday morning, the flag was still flying upside down, so I turned into the parking lot and walked into the office to see if I could be of assistance. The lady at the office reception desk warmly greeted me as I walked in. I introduced myself and asked who I could speak with about the U.S. and Texas flags flying on their flagpole. When she asked, I explained I wanted to make them aware their Texas flag was flying upside down. The conversation was something like this.
Me: "Hi, I’m Larry Hendrick with Flags Bay and I wonder who I might talk to about the Texas flag flying upside down?"
Office worker, "What?"
Me: "Sorry, over the holidays I noticed the Texas flag was flying upside down, but with school out, there wasn’t anything that could be done."
OW: The flag is upside down?"
Me: "Yes"
OW: "Huh?"
Me: "Who takes care of the flags on the pole?"
OW: " The maintenance guys."
Me: "Can I speak to one of them?"
OW: "I can take a message, I don’t know where they are."
Me: "OK, will you tell them the Texas flag is upside down, please?"
OW: "The Texas flag?"
Me: "Yes"
OW: "OK"
The conversation went on for another few minutes, but didn’t get much better. Maybe she was not a native Texan. The idea that the flag had a “right side up” seems to confuse her.
A visual check yesterday showed that they have corrected the problem—the Texas flag is now right-side up.
[...] the school break for the Christmas and New Year holidays, Larry spotted the Texas flag flying upside down at our nearby elementary school (now [...]
Larry,
I had the same experience with the William P Hobby building downtown. Flag upside down, called 311, went through a variety of contacts, etc. Am actually on hold as I write this with the police department to identify the next step in trying to contact someone at the facility that understands.
Paul, please let us know how this adventure turns out!
Larry,
I had the same problem with Thornwood Elementary in Spring Branch ISD on Fern Dr. east of Dairy Ashford.
I couldn’t help but stop and tell the receptionist to fix their flag.
I hope tomorrow at lunch it is flying correctly.
Joe
Hi Joe. I like to remind then that the star points to the sky. I don’t know that is helps though.
Thanks for writing. Deborah.
I am going through the same thing right now with my childs school, Blackburn Elementary. They have hung the flag upside down in the gym. My child, who is 11, told them it was upside down over a week ago. It is still not right side up. I’m emailing the school now. Who are these people and maybe they ought to join the “history” class.
Lisa, I’m afraid it happens more often than we know. I’m proud that your daughter brought it to the school’s attention.
The inverted Texas flag does have a unique meaning. It means Texans are in distress or have declared war. I certainly hope that it was a simple mistake and not a declaration of war on anyone.
Hi Gabriel—here is what it says in the Texas flag code regarding an upside-down flag:
Sec. 3100.053. ORIENTATION ON FLAGPOLE OR FLAGSTAFF. If the state flag is displayed on a flagpole or flagstaff, the white stripe should be at the top of the flag, except as a signal of dire distress in an instance of extreme danger to life or property.
The entire Texas Flag Code can be found here.
Is is true the White, being on top, represents the clouds and the red on bottom represents the blood from battles protecting our state.
Harold—To my knowledge, from its official adoption, there was no specific meaning assigned to the colors in the Lone Star flag. But the official retirement ceremony for the Texas flag (enacted in 2001 and added to the Texas flag code) ascribes meaning to the colors of the flag. It is found at the very end of the document.
I have edited the text, but in short it says: The blue field in me [the flag] stands for the valor of our ancestors in the battles for our country. My white field stands for the purity in all our Texas hearts! It represents the honor that each of us should pay to our state each day. The red is for all of the men and women who have died in service of our state–whether as members of the armed services or as citizen Samaritans.
Thank you for writing Harold. Best Wishes, Deborah
I can’t stand when people do this. I have seen this on a public school, city fire station, several homes and people holding the flag in celebration. Recently, I was watching television and noticed the Texas flag is upside down on a Time Warner Cable commercial. They are talking about how it’s not right to charge for HD services and how that doesn’t fly in Texas around football season. Way to go TWC!
Oh NO, Dylan. I had not noticed the Time-Warner commercial. I will look for it. I write letters and I make phone calls when I find this sort of thing. Aaargh.
I was born and raised in Texas…..now living in California….I noticed a rural home near here that had one of those small windmills in the yard…the vane of the windmill had been painted to resemble the Texas flag, but the red was on top, with white on the bottom….I took down the address and mailed the owners a note that it was upside down, and asked if they could correct it when they got a chance…..will see what happens
This is slightly off the subject, but the flag of CHILE has been flown, by mistake, over some public buildings in Texas. Take a look at the Chile flag on-line and you can see it is pretty close to Texas
I understand Billy—it’s soooo frustrating. Last fall while watching the Miss America pageant on television, I noticed that the Texas flag was hung the wrong way. Years ago, I saw the flag of Chile on a flag pole at a court house in Texas. oops. I bet the flag of Maryland has gets flown upside down all the time, too. Thanks for writing, Billy
Being a native Texan, I have seen the flag flown upside down many times. I believe most are just honest mistakes when attaching the flag