While it is acceptable for people to take actions to avoid unnecessary conflicts, sometimes unnecessary actions are taken when conflict isn’t there, as is the case with a recent decision by the Crestwood School District in Dearborn Heights.

Crestwood district officials ordered the removal of an international flag display in the district high school cafeteria, citing fear of a schism between Arab and non-Arab students.

Luckily for the high school, its students are not as naive as the district board. On Wednesday, students gathered petitions to calling for the return of the flags, according to The Associated Press.

And the students have their principal, Linda Sell-Farver, on their side. Sell-Farver refused to comply with the school board order and called the decision “silly.”

Still, the international banners were lowered Tuesday by a school employee.

School board president Ron Panetta said he was concerned Lebanese students sitting beneath the Lebanese flag might cause a rift to develop between Arab and non-Arab students. He said he had a heightened awareness of a potential problem because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But given the recent outcry for the flags’ return, Panetta said he will suggest a compromise at the district’s next board meeting - that the flags be put back but lower than a larger American flag.

That compromise is just as naive and preposterous as the original decision to take the banners down. By making the American banner standout so prominently among the other colors, notions of superiority and division will only be heightened.

Sell-Farver and her students have voiced Crestwood High School’s want and desire to celebrate the diversity of the building’s population.

The school board is wrong to put a wedge between groups who want to unify.

The flags should be put back the way they were - equal.

In the post-Sept. 11 world, community leaders should try to unite citizens, not divide them. The Crestwood school board should take a lesson in unity from the district’s high schoolers.