Ames High School has the unfortunate distinction of having one of the most un-American marching bands in the nation.

More than a dozen members of the band linked arms and walked off the football field Friday night during a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” An untold number of other band members refused to play their instruments.

It was absolutely disgraceful. Sickening.

The children who staged the musical insurrection told local reporters they did so to protest all sorts of social maladies.

“How can we be unified if there’s racism, sexism and homophobia in our school?” one of the teenage malcontents told the Des Moines Register.

They denied they were disrespecting the flag or the military even though they really were disrespecting the flag and the military.

“It was an expression of my anger and sadness in the direction our country is heading,” one of the budding anarchists told the newspaper. “It’s to express I stand with people who are feeling persecuted or marginalized by the current president or people in power.”

There are two issues that need to be addressed.

First, the school district must deal swiftly to put down this anti-American uprising within the marching band. Those students who chose not to play and those who marched off the field should be immediately removed from the roster.

School leaders must not coddle or tolerate a bunch of petulant and belligerent children dishonoring the U.S. military or the national anthem.

The school’s band director declined to comment so we do not know if he had prior knowledge of the protest. Regardless, it is clear the band director does not have control over his program. And the principal clearly does not have control over the school.

The Ames Tribune reports that the students originally intended to take a knee on the field, but Principal Spence Evans rejected that plan.

The newspaper reports the principal told them to stay in the band section if they chose not to play. Oh, so the principal knew about this in advance? Well, that should be an easy decision for the taxpayer-funded school district — fire the principal.

The school district needs to send a clear message to the student body and the taxpayer-funded employees — there are consequences for disobeying the rules. If that means disbanding the marching band, so be it. If that means firing the employees, so be it.

Second, the parents who allowed their children to publicly dishonor America must also be held accountable. What kind of a person raises their kids to hate America? Why didn’t parents snatch their kids by the ear and drag them out of that stadium?

What happened in Ames, Iowa, should be a wake-up call to the nation. One minute these little anarchists-in-training are wielding trombones, and the next minute they’re wielding baseball bats and burning down city blocks.