WINOOSKI (AP) — A small school district in Vermont was hit with racist and threatening calls and messages after a Somali flag was put up a week ago in response to President Donald Trump referring to Minnesota's Somali community as "garbage."

The Winooski School District began to display the flag Dec. 5 to show solidarity with a student body that includes about 9% people of Somali descent.

"We invited our students and community to come together for a little moment of normalcy in a sea of racist rhetoric nationally," said Winooski School District Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria, himself a Nicaraguan immigrant. "We felt really good about it until the ugliness came knocking Monday morning."

Amanda Swinhart / Associated Press

The Somali flag was flown alongside the Vermont state flag an

See Full Page