A group of friends at West Plains High School in Missouri handed out several pride flags at their school last week to show LGBTQ students that they weren't alone.

But later that day, other students responded by displaying a Confederate flag in the school cafeteria, sparking a contentious debate on social media that has roiled the small town of West Plains.

Students said that the Confederate flag incident was posted on Snapchat with this caption: "If they can fly their queer flags, others can fly their rebel flags. Butt hurt?"



Officials with the West Plains School District said last week that they were investigating the Dec. 9 incident.

On Monday, a district spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that they did not take disciplinary actions against any students and had chosen to deal with the incident as a "learning experience."

The West Plains School District's statement read:

Last week groups of high school students chose to bring banners to school, and while we respect student’s first amendment rights, however, we became aware the banners were used by some members of the groups to taunt other students, and that is not acceptable. Rather than deal with this a disciplinary matter, we chose to deal with it as a learning experience. No disciplinary actions were taken. Our hope is to teach our students to respect each other and to respect different viewpoints on a variety of societal issues. Since that occurrence, rumors have sprung up from the most part from people who were not affiliated with the school district, but we want our community to know what the true facts are and set aside any rumors that are being heard.

(Lana Snodgras, a spokesperson for the school district, told BuzzFeed News that the "banners" referenced in the statement referred to both the pride flag and the Confederate flag.)

Two students who helped distribute the pride flags told BuzzFeed News that they have been receiving hateful online comments since local news outlets reported on the controversy.



"A lot of students don't have parents who support them," said Marianne, a 15-year-old sophomore at the school who distributed the pride flags along with a handful of others. "We were just trying to show that we're proud of who we are."

Taylor, another sophomore, said that her best friend, Rose Schilmoeller, had ordered 60 flags and they had decided to hand them out to whoever wanted them at school. "She wasn't trying to make anyone mad," Taylor, 15, said.