No, it’s not an example of free speech. There is no free speech in the USA. Innocent people lose their jobs over words that they spoke that someone claimed were offensive.
Try stomping on an ISIS flag in an American college and see if that’s free speech.
There was no other way to demonstrate “free speech”?? Like, maybe raising the flag high, maybe, just maybe? Geesh!
You have confused freedom of speech with respect to government, and repercussions of that freedom with respect to the responses of private parties. Private parties are in now way bound by the First Amendment.
In this case, if the flag was his own, and not one provided by the school, the school is, being a sub-division of government, very much in the wrong for suspending him. If it was the school's flag (thus, belonging to the taxpayers), then it was an appropriate move.
(not directed at you IWTUB) - If you're going to deface the flag, make sure it's yours. If it is yours, and if you're going to burn it, I'll help you out by wrapping your sorry ass in it first, then I'll help you light it.
Do that to a Koran. See what your free speach gets you.