Thread: Texas elementary pledges of allegiance to the Mexican Flag

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Brazoria County: Where Texas Began


Radio show helps fuel flag controversy
By Jen Sansbury
The Facts

Published September 20, 2006
FREEPORT — Velasco Elementary School’s principal said he has been taken aback by a controversy that has arisen from his campus’ Mexican Independence Day celebration, and he apologizes for offending parents.

During a short school assembly Friday, several parent volunteers read a pledge of allegiance to the Mexican flag. Since a parent complained on the Chris Baker show on NewsRadio 740 KTRH that afternoon, the issue has become a focal point of some Houston talk radio shows.

“It’s been overwhelming,” said longtime Principal Sam Williams. “It’s been a real trying ordeal and all I can say is I deeply apologize if anyone was offended by it — and I can see that they are.”

In hindsight, he said, the program should have been presented differently.

“If I had it to do all over again, we would revamp it,” Williams said. “There’s no way that we would repeat it.”

Velasco Elementary has 635 students in prekindergarten through fourth grade, 65 percent of whom are Hispanic. Williams, who is black, has served as principal of the school for 18 years.

“We have stated in our mission statement that we are a campus that is a beacon of hope for a culturally diverse population,” Williams said.

At about 10 a.m. Friday, students and parents gathered in the gym for an assembly commemorating Diez y Seis de Septiembre, Sept. 16, when Mexico celebrates its independence from Spain. The school’s bilingual classes from different grade levels performed songs, Williams said.Everyone was given a small Mexican flag and a group of six or seven parents recited the pledge from a script, Williams said. The students did not recite it, he said.

“My students don’t even know the Mexican pledge,” Williams said. “In the minds of my little kids here at the elementary school ... they were simply holding a flag.”

He said the audience did stand as a sign of respect because that is the custom with which students are familiar.

“What we normally do is we stand for any pledge that’s given,” he said. “They can only relate to the U.S. pledge and the Texas pledge.”

Baker continued talking about the incident during his radio show Tuesday afternoon. He criticized the principal for allowing anyone to recite a pledge to the Mexican flag in the midst of a national debate over illegal immigration. He also called for the principal’s demotion.

“To blow it off as quote-unquote ‘historical teaching methods’ either shows complete arrogance or a lack of the ability to grasp the seriousness of the illegal immigration issue to Americans,” Baker said at the beginning of his show.

The audio of Baker’s broadcast is stored online at www.ktrh.com. According to the recording, on Friday a woman who said her name was Amy called in about the assembly at her daughter’s school. She claimed everyone there was asked to pledge allegiance to the Mexican flag.

“Where is the sensitivity to the country and to the troops and the men and women that have fought and died for this country?” she said.

The woman said her husband served three tours of duty in Vietnam and she has a son in the war now.

“We absolutely refuse to stand up and pledge allegiance to another country’s flag,” she said.

Williams said he was “devastated” that the parent who objected to the program called a radio show rather than approaching him with her concern.

“I would have graciously visited with that parent and explained on-site what the intent was,” he said. “I would have been open — I still remain open — to the parent or the parents that were in attendance for the presentation on Sept. 15, to explain.”

Brazosport ISD spokesman Stuart Dornburg pointed out that Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 is considered national Hispanic Heritage Month and Velasco’s assembly was a cultural educational activity. The district values and respects diversity, he said.

“We study different cultures, that’s part of the educational process,” Dornburg said. “And we do do a pledge to the American and the Texas flag every morning.”

Jen Sansbury covers Brazosport ISD for The Facts. Contact her at (979) 237-0152.

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Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 is considered national Hispanic Heritage month






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Published in Clute, Texas.

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This burns me up! Every administrator and teacher who had a hand in this treason should be fired.

That's what happens when LULAC and La Raza mamas take over the PTA.

Dixie

Brazosport ISD spokesman Stuart Dornburg pointed out that Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 is considered national Hispanic Heritage Month and Velasco’s assembly was a cultural educational activity. The district values and respects diversity, he said.

This is fine although I'm not really sure on the need for a whole month. What does reciting the Mexican pledge have to do with Hispanic Heritage Month. I can maybe see covering it in a class setting but to have people recite it in a public gathering is outrageous.

Sometimes schools, government and businesses go too far pushing diversity and muliculturalism.

When do the rest of the cultures get their month??

Good for that parent who exposed that crap. The principal deserves whatever he gets. The other parents needed to know what was going on. I would be livid too.

Mexico's liberation from Spain should be celebrated in Mexico, not America. This is our country, not Mexico's.

I am sick and tired of Mexican's shoving their culture down America's throat. They are disrespectful of American culture and the American people. We need to get them out of here before they destroy our children's future.

I said this before, but I place more of the blame on those who ENCOURAGE this type of thing, such as that principal. He stated plainly that the students don't even know the Mexican pledge of allegiance. So, why do they have to read it from a script??! This is multiculturalism gone totally out of control. The cultural elites are ENCOURAGING these people to retain their ties to their ancestral homelands instead of encouraging them to assimilate. So, why are we surprized when the Mexicans (or any other group) siezes the opportunity and shoves their culture down our throats. After all, they are actually being encouraged to do so by those who are in power.

I am glad that this incident was made public. I am beginning to think that it is only after these people who encourage this behavior (like this principal) are confronted each and every time they pull this stuff will they start to think twice before doing it.

Celebrating Mexican Independence Day should never,never be allowed to happen in a public setting and a pledge to a foreign flag should not be allowed and is at the bottom of poor taste.We have one flag and one pledge of allegiance and should not have a hodge-podge of pledges popping up every time a public event is scheduled.

My Great-Grandfather was a Confederate soldier and I wonder how all the diversity and p.c. advocates would react if I stood at a school event and led a pledge of allegiance to the Confederate flag that my ancestors fought under?

I would never think of doing that because I'm an American citizen,not a European-American and the only allegiance I owe is to this nation.

This pledge to the flag of a foreign nation (Mexico) was distasteful and highly disrespectful to true Americans everywhere.There should be reprecussions for those who encouraged and abetted this.

Sometimes schools, government and businesses go too far pushing diversity and multiculturalism.

But this is what multiculturalism is. That is why we have celebrations of Mexican independence day in the first place. There really is no "too far". This is just another example of why it is not good for a united and cohesive America. Multiculturalism is not just studying about other cultures but it is embracing other cultures. Immersing yourself in it. Multiculturalism suggest that being a bi-lingual or tri-lingual nation is just fine and dandy. Ultimately, at least in the case of Mexico, it is also about giving equal time to Mexican history and Mexican heroes. Of course it is not really about equal time because in many cases you have to lessen or even disparage American culture and history in the process.

Multiculturalism is bad for America!

I wonder where is the math on celebrating diversity when 65% of the school is Hispanic. Probably 50-75% of that 65% is ILLEGAL. Sounds more like a take over than diversity. What a crock.

Big business, unions, special interests, religion, and cronies of corrupt politicians are not suppose to be the caretakers of our Constitution. They are not suppose to tell us which laws they would like to follow and which laws they would like to ignore to fatten their coffers.

Trouble