Sacramento students sent home for wearing U.S.A. flag on Cinco de Mayo

[Andy Chase]

:fire:

 

[Mike Dziubina]

I just tried to respond to this but had to start over, this turns my stomach. If i were one of these students I would have for sure been expelled. :soap::soap::soap::soap:

 

[Roger Batts]

This is why I am going to send my son to private school for high school!

 

[Bill V]

This reminds me of another thread on this site, not too long ago, discussing the US flag being on clothing. Some of our conservative members here decried that wearing the flag, or even stars and stripes, on clothing is disrespectful of the flag and the country.



Yet I have to suspect that those same members would say that they're horrified by this story, and that the students should be allowed to wear the flag.



To those members who made such comments back then (you know who you are)--if you comment here, be sure you don't contradict yourself... :banana::banana:

 

[Jim parnell]

i think la rue got it right in the previous message/thread. Athletes waving the flag or wearing as a cape is not intended to be disprespectful, they are proud of their country. Wearing a shirt/bathing suit that "resembles" the flag is being patriotic, wearing a shirt/bathing suit made from a flag is being disprectful. Wearing a t shirt with the flag printed on it is not disrespectful. Military personnel wear small flags on the uniforms everday, good for them all the way around.

 

[Tom Schindler]

This is yet another reason I DO NOT live in California.





Tom

 

[Don Pertz]

My Answering Machine :



WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Press 1 for English. Press 2 to disconnect until you learn to speak English. And remember only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, JESUS CHRIST and the AMERICAN SOLIDER. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom...





To hell with Cinco De Mayo, celebrate it in Mexico , Go home for vacation and stay..

 

[Mike Dziubina]

To hell with Cinco De Mayo, celebrate it in Mexico , Go home for vacation and stay..

that's what I told everyone all day lol.

 

[LaRue Medlin]

My wife is Spanish and American Indian.... I meet her on Cinco De Mayo in 1984. So with that thought in mind, we won't discuss drpertz or Mike - CT statement. While I don't really like "illegal" persons overwhelming our country,, I do state 1 thing.This is the US and damn you if I can't show my patriotism ANYTIME I WANT! Barring any dissrespect to MY FLAG.

 

[EddieS'04]

No disrepect to imagrants from any country. But why do we make a big deal of any of those holidays. Then we have so many, that disrespect our own flag and holidays, nowdays..



This crawl in my throat developed, when. My ex is an elementry teacher. Depending on the ethnic background of her principal. She was not allowed to have a class celebration of some of our holidays, or make special bullitin boards, flying the USA colors. But was required to have class parties for other countries. Sometimes the whole school put on a production for other countries. It was very imbalanced.:angry:



The kids are learning at the elementry age, in some schools. The USA is secondary..:angry:



Pride in our country is being lost at an early age. I have seen how, first hand. My hope is this is very limited. As I can only draw a conclusion from, what I seen.

 

[Mark K 2]

On another forum, a couple of conservative folks went apeshit when I said that we learned "O Canada" and "God Save the Queen" in elementary school. It didn't matter to them that we also learned the "Star Spangled Banner."



Our parents never had an issue with it. We even sang them in front of all the parents at a school program about other countries.

 

[EddieS'04]

Mark, there has to be a balance, though. This is the USA. What I saw was not.

I volunteered in her schools. I actually seen some educators. Make a big deal of, their opinion of Americas' faults, to the students. But ignore telling them about the downside problems of other countries. IMO, educators have no bussiness teaching their opinions.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Was discussing this with my wife.



I'm all for free speech, but I do think that schools can and should be able to regulate what students wear. The issue to me is when such regulations become arbitrary.



I'm a big fan of school uniforms for just such cases like this.



If the school administrators believe that the students in question were making a political statement and not a patriotic statement by their choice of attire that day, and that such a statement would be disruptive to the educational process THEN I think they are within their rights to censor the speech (the clothing). This happens all the time in schools.



If it were a jewish school and a student was wearing a Nazi flag then I think we would all agree that it is inappropriate.



I can see both sides of this.



But, for me, I suspect the students were wearing the shirts on that day as a political statement. That type of speech is not protected on our high school campuses.



Lastly, I think the administrators could have showed some backbone and not tried to play "thought police", and instead simply used the entire incident as teaching moment on rights AND tolerance...a lesson that clearly BOTH sides of this issue need to understand better.



TJR

 

[Jose Santana]

Well said TJR, without knowing the facts I think the kids were probably doing it to be jerks... Look I am Native American and Puerto Rican and I could care less about cinco de mayo. I don't celebrate it nor know what it's for, but if I am in an area of all mexicans then why try and by spiteful and cause a problem? I would not try and disrupt a St. paddy's day parade or an indian powwow or a Jewish festival. It seems these kids wanted to cause a stir and it should not have been tolerated, you know it, I know it and so do these kids. They could have been putting themselves in danger also so for thier own protection the school did the right thing. But most folks will use this delibrate episode as a point in this fight against illegals eroding our country.



Joseymack

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Josey,



You are a breath of fresh air on MYST. You are not the typical "chest beater" that can't see past the emotions of issues like this.



TJR

 

[Collin Lyon]

I don't have all the facts either, but I live just to the north of Morgan Hill, and it has been a buzz topic here. It is reported that the HS is appx 40% hispanic. Not sure on the HS population, but I believe it is at least a couple thousand, maybe more. The story is about 5 kids out of this HS population.



At least a couple of these kids (wearing the Stars & Stripes) are Latino. These kids were wearing these shirts throughout the school year. They said they were (also throughout the year) showing their American pride. The school board has stated Live Oak HS handled this wrong.



Listening to the radio on the way to work, there was mention of legal precedent (Supreme Court, I believe) that there is a right to wear patriotic clothing (protected as free speech). Sorry, do not have the specific case. Heard it went back to the early '70s.



Were these 5 kids smart for wearing this on that particular day? I dunno. I probably wouldn't have worn it on that particular day.



IMO, it's free speech.

 

[TrainTrac]

Here's a follow-up:

May 6, 2010



"There Will Be No Apology"

By Tom Bevan



Those are the words of the mother of Matt Dariano, one of the five kids at Live Oak High School in the San Francisco Bay Area who were sent home for having the temerity to wear American flag tee shirts on the "Mexican heritage day" of Cinco de Mayo.



"There will not be an apology," Mrs. Dariano told the camera crew outside the school. "Matthew is part Hispanic, OK? He's an American. So, no, there will be no apology from any Dariano."



Guess who else uttered the exact same phrase last year? James Crowley, the white Cambridge cop who arrested black Harvard professor Louis Gates, Jr. and was singled out in a nationally televised press conference by President Obama for "acting stupidly."



On July 23 of last year outside his home, a reporter told Crowley that Gates had asked for an apology from him for his handling of the incident.



"There will be no apology," Crowley replied.



After a beat, the reporter followed up: "Is this now and ever, 'no apology,?"



"Yes," Crowley replied flatly.



The fact is, Americans are increasingly fed up with the racially divisive, politically correct insanity pulsating through the country today. After years of being pressured and browbeaten by the left-wing PC police about what they can say, do, think, and wear, many Americans have had enough. And they're especially furious with being asked to apologize for things that aren't or shouldn't be in the least bit offensive.



The idea that high school kids anywhere in America would be called the principal's office - let alone that they would be asked whether they should apologize - for wearing clothes bearing the image of the United States flag, is a perfect case in point.



It's the kind of insanity that rankles the sensibilities of millions upon millions of Americans, and has them cheering when someone - whether a Cambridge cop or a Bay Area mother - stands up, refuses to back down, and says, "there will be no apology."



Tom Bevan is the co-founder and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics.

 

[Bill V]

These kids were wearing these shirts throughout the school year. They said they were (also throughout the year) showing their American pride.

I was in complete agreement with TJR and joseymack when they were indicating that if these kids were wearing the flag only on May 5, simply to be contrarian to those celebrationg Cinco de Mayo, then the school acted correctly.



However, if this statement is true, that the kids were wearing these shirts throughout the school year, and that wearing them May 5 was simply a continuation of that, with no apparent attempt to instigate or to make any statement with regard to Cinco de Mayo--then yes, absolutely, they should be allowed to wear the stars and stripes with pride.

 

[Collin Lyon]

Some background from the Mercury News, if anyone is further interested . . .

 

[Jose Santana]

BillV I hear you there but I would bet my lovely wife and house that this is simply not the case. But I could be wrong...