When burning a flag is patriotic

Flames crackled and smoke billowed into the air on Tuesday, creating charred remains of weather-worn stars and stripes that have served their time atop flagpoles and are in need of retirement.

Students at St. Isidore Catholic School learned the proper way to retire a U.S. flag during a ceremony Tuesday at the Yuba City school. Boy Scouts from Yuba City's Troop 6 and the Beale Air Force Base Honor Guard were on hand to walk them through the process. See a slideshow.

"It was a great opportunity for our kids to see this piece of patriotism that is not shown in many places and gives them the understanding of how important our flag is to us by the way that we put it to sleep," St. Isidore Principal Karen McDonald said.

"It's real important for our students and families to understand is that one of the reasons why we have Catholic schools is because our nation allows us to have the choice," McDonald added.

"Some people get a little upset when the see us burning a flag. A lot of men and women have died to give us the right to burn a flag as a freedom of speech," said Scoutmaster Robert Mowers of Troop 6.

"That's not what we did today. Today was retiring a flag. We had a very solemn ceremony teaching the youth of today how to do this in a very structured way that allows us to retire a flag properly. On a scouting outing, we will take the ashes and bury them in the mountains. According to the U.S. National Flag Code, this is a preferred method of retiring a flag that is tattered and torn."

A new flag was raised at the school following the retirement of the old one and several others.

"Today's extra special piece was to have that new flag brought to us which was flown over the capitol," McDonald added.