Twelve-year-olds shouldn’t be asked to take up arms and battle against the constant suppression of free speech, but that burden was thrust onto a Colorado middle school student who was asked to remove the Gadsden flag from his backpack or face punishment. When Jaiden felt that his right to freely express his love for his country was being taken away by administrators at the school, he fought back.

Now, administrators have admitted that it was a mistake to tell Jaiden to remove the patch and have decided to allow him to continue proudly carrying it around campus. The Vanguard School in Colorado Springs, CO, owned up to their mistake after a long and arduous battle by Jaiden and his family ended in a victory.

The school board of directors released an impactful statement that was shared on Twitter by Josh Alexander, in which they described their reasons for the decision.