REPUBLIC, Mo. -- Riley Collier loves flying the flag in the back of his pickup -- the Confederate flag.
"Just trying to express myself; it's just like bumper stickers or anything of that nature," said Collier.
He ran into a big problem, though, when he took it on his school grounds. Collier said school officials warned him to stop flying Ole Dixie.
"They said they could view the flag from inside the building, so it was a distraction to students apparently," said Collier.
So he took it down, but continued to fly it to and from Republic High School. In response, the school suspended Collier's parking privileges for 30 days.
"It would be easier and it would pacify them, but I just don't see why I should," said Collier.
When he earned his parking privileges back, his flag came back and that led to his second parking suspension.
Collier has the support of his dad.
"To my knowledge there's nothing in any of the school handbooks that says you can't do it," said Gene Collier.
"We don't articulate every rule and regulation; no school district could do that. We don't have the manpower, time, hours, energy to do all that," said Republic School District Superintendent Vern Minor.
While Minor can't talk about this specific situation because the law prohibits school leaders from commenting on students, Riley's father has plenty to say about the flag flap.
"Maybe as a parent I should have said no, but I didn't, because I know Riley is trying to be someone, he's trying to get his own self-esteem and everything, and I didn't see him doing no wrong flying the confederate flag," said Gene Collier.
Others did see something wrong with it. Collier said school officials told him they wanted the banner put away, because some people were offended.
"It's got nothing to do with racism. I get asked that a lot. But it's a lot to do with how I grew up living in the country and the beliefs behind it," said Riley Collier.
Collier's dad has been driving him to and from school. Collier said it has created a hardship on his father, so when he gets his driving privilege back he's leaning toward not flying the flag on school grounds again.
