Student wants suspension overturned for patriotic defacement

RED WING, Minn., Oct. 8 (UPI) -- A Minnesota high school student said he is trying to get officials to revoke a five-day suspension for leading a group of patriotic decorators.

Bryce Reps, 17, a student at Red Wing High School, was suspended for five days for allegedly leading more than a dozen students who painted slogans including "god bless America" and "never forget 9/11" on the school's windows with erasable chalk and planted about 150 small U.S. flags around the grounds, ABC's "Good Morning America" reported Tuesday.

Reps was the only student to be suspended for a full five days, while the others received two-day suspensions for the offense of defacing school property.

"My suspension is more severe than for someone who shows up to school drunk or has drugs on them." Reps said.

He said he wants the suspension overturned because it could harm his ability to get a $15,000 Air Force college program scholarship for the University of Minnesota.

"I talked to a captain in the Air Force and that'll make a big, big difference," Reps said. "There was never any intent to permanently damage anything. It was a prank. We just wanted to decorate the school to prove that we're patriotic."

School officials said the erasable chalk used by the students was not meant to be used on wood and left some doors permanently damaged. The students' parents have been stuck with the $2,000 bill for repairing the doors.

"The high school administration is going to review the overall incident and to make sure we've done the right thing," Red Wing Schools District Superintendent Karsten Anderson said.