Thread: S. Bay Students Wearing U.S. Flag Shirts Sent Home

Eugene Volokh, a professor of law at UCLA, said the students are protected under California Education Code 48950, which prohibits schools from enforcing a rule subjecting a high school student to disciplinary sanctions solely on the basis of conduct that, when engaged outside of campus, is protected by the First Amendment.

If the school could point to previous incidents sparked by students who wore garments with American flags, they could argue that the flag is likely to lead to "substantial disruption," Volokh said.

Were the illegal invaders and anchor babies wearing their beloved mexican rag t-shirts and face paint asked to go home and change?

Here is what ticks me off. Here is an exert of a comment from a student:

As far as the steps taken by Mr. Rodriguez, I personally don’t know how I would handle the situation myself. And am still debating weather he took the right steps or not. [b]But has anyone bothered to ask how they handled this last year? As an eye witness to this last year. They actually let the “Mexicansâ€

i wonder what would have happened had he done nothing?
would we even know about this school?

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-198136.html

Related Topic re the 5 students in danger now from gang violence

I AM BUYING MY GRANDSONS USA FLAG SHIRTS TOMORROW,SO THEY CAN WEAR THEM TO SCHOOL ON MONDAY, I THINK THAT SHOULD BE THE NEW DRESS CODE FOR ALL AMERICAN KIDS -DIFFERENT STYLES AND COLORS FOR EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK. TELL THEM TO BE PROUD AND BRAVE AND STAND STRONG

Link to the clubs at the High School including MEChA:

MECHA stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán). Aztlán was the homeland of the Mexicas (Mexicas is the root word of Chicano), also known as the people of the earth, who wandered from Aztlán to Tenochtitlan. Aztlán is believed to be located in the southern US and northern Mexico.

http://www.liveoakhs.ca.campusgrid.net/ ... ties/Clubs

Bound to taint prom: Gang violence, retaliation feared for five students who wore American flag apparel to school on Cinco de Mayo
By Alex Pappas — The Daily Caller | Published: 05/07/10 at 1:27 PM | Updated: 05/08/10 at 8:17 AM


It’s prom weekend for juniors and seniors at Live Oak High School, and police are concerned about possible retaliatory gang violence against four students who were were reprimanded by a principal for wearing American flag apparel to the Morgan Hill, Calif., school on Cinco de Mayo.

Dominic Mac, one of the students who donned the American flag attire Wednesday, said during an interview on Fox News Friday morning that he’s been threatened. “I was texted on my phone in class during the last period, for me, and someone texted me and said, ‘Hey, Hispanics are coming back to Live Oak, we’ll be there after school,’ stuff like that.â€

Morgan Hill: With heavy police presence, students hold peace rally after flag flap
By Bruce Newman and Lisa Fernandez



Posted: 05/07/2010 09:23:11 AM PDT
Updated: 05/07/2010 10:08:56 PM PDT

After two days in a media maelstrom of their own making, students at Morgan Hill's Live Oak High School took a deep breath — and in some cases, the day off — holding a peaceful sit-in on campus Friday under the watchful eye of more than a dozen police officers.

The trouble began during Wednesday's Cinco de Mayo celebration, when an assistant principal told four boys that they couldn't wear clothes emblazoned with the American flag. By Friday, administrators at the school were ready to raise the flag of surrender. The school's principal, Nicholas Boden, issued a public apology for moving "too quickly in drawing the line of when to take preventive action."

The apology didn't come in time to head off one of the boys and his mother from going on Fox News at sunrise, or to stop tea party patriots from planning to descend upon Morgan Hill today.

The heightened police presence was due in part to rumors swirling around the school Thursday that Latino gangs would storm the campus and attack white students. According to Wesley Smith, superintendent for Morgan Hill Unified School District, 150 Live Oak students stayed home Friday. That was more than 10 percent of the school's enrollment — three times more than normal — and came despite an auto-dial message from the district encouraging parents to send their kids to school Friday.

Pointing at the lineup of police cars, one sophomore — who did what she called a "drive by" of the campus even though her parents held her out of school for the day — said: "It kind of makes the situation more intense. But if anything's going to happen, it won't happen until they're gone."

Juan Bernardino, an 18-year-old student, was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats against a classmate, according to Morgan Hill police Sgt. Jerry Neumayer. With hands cuffed behind his back, he was driven away in one of six police cruisers parked in front of the school at noon and booked into county jail as an adult.

Despite reports that five students wore flag-festooned clothing Wednesday, the father of one boy denied to the Mercury News that his son was involved.

On Friday, at least one of the boys, Matthew Dariano, stayed away from school. Reached by phone, Matthew said he and his mother were at a hotel doing satellite interviews with Fox News that began before dawn. He insisted that despite reports he and his friends made slurs against Latino students, "We didn't say anything at all. We just wore our shirts."

Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez had characterized the shirts as "incendiary," but his choice of words turned out to be just as combustible. He told the boys to take off their shirts or turn them inside-out — or go home. They called his request "disrespectful" and two went home. Their mothers called the media. By Friday, talk radio at both extremes of the political spectrum was aflame with angry callers, and the controversy seemed on the verge of spiraling out of control.

That's when students convened a "peace rally" near the school's theater, asking everyone to calm down. "They had a moment of silence for the teachers who have been getting hate mail from all over the country," said junior Marcos Lopez. Then the flags — one American, one Mexican — were displayed together. "They were saying it was really stupid what everyone did," said freshman Gordon Gunther Jr.

Just then, a man drove

by the school waving an American flag out the window of his pickup truck. "I just think that's stupid," said Andrew Pitzer, a junior. His friend Gordon shook his head and added, "That's what keeps it going."

The Tea Party Patriots of Silicon Valley called for a rally "supporting the patriotic local teens" this morning in downtown Morgan Hill. That infuriated the school superintendent. "Everyone wants to take this situation and make it their agenda for personal gain," Smith said. "We have local people with political aspirations who are stirring things up. We've got groups "... going from town to town in America looking for a cause so they can get on the front page."

But the racial strife being buzzed about in Morgan Hill's supermarkets and coffee shops this week seemed less a media creation than a long-simmering problem that the flag tempest revealed. Laura Camacho, who held her daughter Annika out of school fearing violence, graduated from Live Oak in the early '90s. She's Irish and celebrates St. Patrick's Day, but she's married to a Mexican-American.

"There has always been racial tension, even when I went here," Camacho said, sitting in a car outside the school. She said she felt what the boys did on Cinco de Mayo was wrong. "Some people need to learn a little racial sensitivity," she added. "I think it was planned, and I think it was discriminatory."

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_1503 ... ck_check=1

I just looked at the Facebook page that was started to 'Fire Miguel Rodriguez' the assistant principal. If I remember, he refused to apologize.

They have 104 members so far.

This is the United States of America. We do not celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the United States. It is a Mexican holiday. It is not a American holiday. As far as I am concerned the five students wearing patriotic clothing should have not be send home. The students wearning Mexican clothing, etc. should have been send home. Celebrating Mexican holidays and letting them to continue to speak Spanish is wrong and should not be allowed. They need to assimilate.