Calif. Students Sent Home for Wearing U.S. Flags on Cinco de Mayo
Five students at a California high school were sent home on Cinco de Mayo when they refused to remove their American flag shirts. School officials felt wearing them on the Mexican holiday was "incendiary."
According to a report in the Morgan Hill Times, the students were sitting at a table outside Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill Wednesday, when assistant principal Miguel Rodriguez approached, and asked them to remove their American flag bandanas. They did, but then were told to go to the principal's office.
There, the students say the principal told them to turn their shirts inside-out, or to go home. The students said they thought it was disrespectful to flag to do that, so they chose to go home.
The students say Rodriguez explained to them that he was fearful the shirts could spark a fight between them and Mexican-American students who were celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
"They said we were starting a fight," one of the students, Matt Dariano told the newspaper. "We were fuel to the fire."
Another student, Daniel Galli told NBC Bay Area, "They said we could wear it on any other day, but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it."
The school's dress code bans all bandanas at the school. While there is nothing in it about American flags, the code does give administrators some leeway:
Any clothing or decoration which detracts from the learning environment is prohibited. The school has the right to request that any student dressing inappropriately for school will change into other clothes, be sent home to change, and/or be subject to disciplinary action.
However, it appears in this case, administrators went too far. In a statement, the Morgan Hill Unified School District said it did not agree with the school's actions.
In an attempt to foster a spirit of cultural awareness and maintain a safe and supportive school environment, the Live Oak High School administration took certain actions earlier today. The district does not concur with the Live Oak High School administration's interpretation of either board or district policy related to these actions.
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Personally, I think it should be a misdeameanor to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at school , or fly a Mexican flag on your car while driving . Living in San Jose, I have to deal with these problems.
I have nothing against Mexicans, or any other race , however this holiday overtakes everything here. On Cinco de Mayo, the roads downtown are closed, not for a parade, just because they all need to be closed to inconvience everyone else.
Cinco de Mayo is not a national holiday, and thus not excussed by schools . Unless you go to San Jose High Academy. Then, it's completely excussed. Ash Wednesday? Not excussed and your parents can be fined.
You want to have a party? fine. You want a parade? Get a permit and have fun. You want a sticker on your car? Go for it. You want to turn up loud music , to blow out my ears, you want to block all the streets, you want to stay up all night to celebrate something that you don't even know about? Fly back to Mexico and stay till you're partied out.
The Tea Party folks were in town ....Morgan Hill....today to stand with the kids wearing the flag t-shirts.
Somehow this whole thing got blown way out of proportion. Yes I think the kids should have been allowed to wear the t-shirts. Having said that, I would have acted as if I did not noticed. I must agree, I think these kids were trollling for trouble. If you don't give the rebel his 15 minutes he usually quiets down, but now there is an issue because everybody is vying for their 15 minutes.
Let's pretend they are all young and dumb and go on about our business and let kids be kids.
Claps.
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." JFK
"What luck for rulers, that men do not think." Hitler
(These kids thought - and the school 'rulers' hated it)
"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all." Wilde
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right
to tell people what they do not want to hear.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth
is a revolutionary act. --- George Orwell
It takes the highest courage to utter unpopular truths. Herbert Spencer
He who does not bellow out the truth when he knows the truth
makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers. - Charles Peguy
Have you seen the interview ? They're just snot nosed kids causing trouble. Stop martyring these guys. I did stuff like this in high school too. It makes me a smart ass, not a crusader.
These kids obviously planned ahead to all wear American flag clothing. They were just trying to start trouble. The principal did the right thing.....send the punks home!
Did the school also take down the American flag that I presume still hangs over schools and sometimes even in classrooms?
Did anyone actually complain, or was it another case of the school administration thinking they were being proactive because someone might possibly be offended?
And were there any discussions in any classrooms about what actuallly happened that created the Cinco de Mayo holiday? Do the teachers even know?
Coloradoyouthguy said this school wouldn't let him pray
silently over his lunch.
What they objected to was his anti- gay message in
the alphabet soup.
Government school is a terrible place for a child to grow up.
Here in Houston there was a school that flown the Mexican flag above the American flag and a student remove the Mexican flag and threw it in the trash.
This isn't Mexico. This is America. America might celebrate Cinco de Mayo but that doesn't mean that it's Mexico?
How stupid are you to tell students NOT to wear the American flag in America? Very.
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)