A 12-year-old Colorado boy was removed from class due to a patch on his backpack that showed the Gadsden flag.

Reading "DON'T TREAD ON ME," the Gadsden flag has its roots in Benjamin Franklin's Join, or Die cartoon, which features a snake and calls for colonial unity. It was introduced in 1775 as a flag for the Continental Navy.

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It has served as a symbol of national strength, but officials at the Vanguard School in Colorado Springs took the young student out of class because they argued the flag has "origins in slavery."

Despite the school's attempts to have the boy remove the patch and return to class, neither he nor his mother gave any ground toward the school's persistence.

The exchange between the boy, his mother, and a school official was captured and posted to social media.

"Do they know what the Gadsden flag is?" the mother asked. "That it's a historical flag?"

"The reason that they do not want the flag, the reason we do not want the flag, is due to its origins with slavery and slave trade," a school official responded.

The mother questioned if the two were talking about the same flag and asked the Vanguard School official what consequences her son would face if he did not take off the patch.

The mother stressed how upset she already was that the 12-year-old student was missing "so much school," but the official insisted he could not return to class if his bag had the patch on it.

"We can't have that in and around other kids," she said.

The mother continued to explain how the Gadsden flag has nothing to do with slavery.

"Maybe you're thinking of, like, the Confederate flag?" she asked.

She is only there to enforce district policy, the official maintained, before telling the mother how she has every right not to agree with it.

"Because the ACLU says that he's allowed to wear that," the mother responded. "If you go on their website, it says in big letters."

"Unless there's like a ban on patches, period, like if you said, 'There's no patches allowed at this school. You cannot display what you think,' ... or anything like that, I think it's, like, one-sided."

"Other kids have patches," her son added.

The mother described the origin of the flag again and encouraged the official to visit the American Civil Liberties Union page.

"We're following district policy," the official reiterated. "The last thing I want is him out of class."

She completely agreed with the latter, the mother said.

"He takes his classes seriously. He studies. He wants to get straight As. He made honor roll when he was here before. He intends to do that again."

"But it's hard because he keeps missing class for this. ... We teach him to always stick up for your beliefs, and, I mean, you're going over the Revolution for seventh grade. I mean, the Founding Fathers stood up for what they believed in against unjust laws. This is unjust."

Footage of the exchange was paired with myriad emails from another school official attempting to justify the boy's treatment under the school's dress code.

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In the explanation, the official pointed to an article citing a "graphic design scholar" who alleged that due to its common use next to Trump and Confederate battle flags, the Gadsden flag might be viewed by some as a symbol of intolerance, hate, or racism.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Vanguard School for comment but did not receive a response.