http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/04 ... _12_06.txt

Fallbrook student takes on high school

By: TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer

FALLBROOK ---- A 15-year-old Fallbrook High School honor student said Wednesday that school officials violated her right to free speech when they allegedly asked her to hand over a handkerchief-sized American flag she wore on campus, then put a disciplinary report in her student file when she refused.

Malia Fontana, a sophomore, and her mother, Nikki Fontana, are being represented by the San Diego branch of the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the March 31 incident.

The ACLU is demanding that the district remove the report from Malia's student file, apologize to her and stop "flag censorship" on the roughly 3,000-student campus, according to the group's executive director, Kevin Keenan.


Keenan has called a news conference for 11 a.m. today in downtown San Diego.

Tom Anthony, superintendent of the Fallbrook Union High School District, said Wednesday that he could not comment on the case because he had not yet been contacted by the ACLU.

Anthony said Wednesday that he was not aware of any policy at the school prohibiting students from carrying flags.

"I do know they (school officials) gave out ... a protocol about respecting the flag ---- any flag, it didn't matter if it was U.S. or Mexican," Anthony said, adding that it had appeared during the protests that some flags were touching the ground.

Fallbrook High School is on spring break this week and Principal Ruth Hellams could not be reached for comment.

The campus, as with many in North County, struggled with student protests during the last week of March over proposed federal immigration reforms. In Fallbrook, a few hundred students participated in a series of marches through the downtown area.

School administrators have said that no demonstrations took place at the high school itself.

During the protests, Mexican flags and American flags were carried by many of the marchers.

Malia said she was not involved in the protests but took an American flag to school the day after a friend of hers was asked to remove a headband that bore the flag's image.

"That upset me, so the next day I decided to wear an American flag in my pocket," she said.

The first half of the day went smoothly, Malia said, but during lunch break she was approached by a security guard who told her she had to put the flag away.

A copy of an "incident report" written later by the guard says that the displaying of flags "was not allowed at this school."

Malia said she felt right away that forcing her to put the flag away was a violation of her rights, so she resisted.

"He asked me to remove the flag, so I asked him 'why?' and he said 'because of what's going on,' " Malia said Wednesday. She said she believed he was referring to the recent protests.

"He said if I didn't remove it, he would send me to the vice principal's office," she said.

When Malia declined again to remove the flag, she was taken to the vice principal's office and her mother was called, she said.

Nikki Fontana said that she met Malia at the office of Assistant Principal Milan Perisic. Fontana said Perisic told her that in light of the heightened tensions surrounding student walkouts, the school had suspended the displaying of flags.

Perisic could not be reached for comment Wednesday because the school was closed.

Shortly after the incident at the school, Nikki Fontana said she called the San Diego ACLU chapter. Keenan said the incident sounded somewhat similar to one he was working on in Oceanside, where the unified school district sent a letter to parents saying it had temporarily banned flags.

"(However), in Fallbrook, there was never any notice to parents or students," Keenan said. "They just started censoring the carrying and wearing of flags when they saw them. The other difference is that there were no disturbances in Fallbrook; there were some disturbances in Oceanside."

Besides restoring Malia's student record and securing an apology from Fallbrook High School, Keenan said he hopes to send a message to other school districts that banning flags can be legally dangerous.

"There were certainly no press reports that Fallbrook was doing this, so it may be that other school districts are doing this, too, and they should be on notice about what students' rights are," he said.

Nikki Fontana said she has always been proud of her daughter and just wants her treated fairly.

"She doesn't draw attention to herself," Nikki Fontana said. "She was going about the normal course of her day, she wasn't waving the flag in anybody's face, she wasn't disruptive or causing disruption in the class. None of the kids at the school approached her and said that they were offended."

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 731-5799 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.