Thread: CA Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees

Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees
Freedom of expression or cultural disrespect on Cinco de Mayo?
By GEORGE KIRIYAMA
Updated 7:58 AM PDT, Thu, May 6, 2010



On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.

"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.


"They said if we tried to go back to class with our shirts not taken off, they said it was defiance and we would get suspended," Dominic Maciel, Galli's friend, said.

The boys really had no choice, and went home to avoid suspension. They say they're angry they were not allowed to express their American pride. Their parents are just as upset, calling what happened to their children, "total nonsense."

"I think it's absolutely ridiculous," Julie Fagerstrom, Maciel's mom, said. "All they were doing was displaying their patriotic nature. They're expressing their individuality."

But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

As for an apology, the boys and their families say, "fat chance."

"I'm not going to apologize. I did nothing wrong," Galli said. "I went along with my normal day. I might have worn an American flag, but I'm an American and I'm proud to be an American."

The five boys and their families met with a Morgan Hill Unified School District official Wednesday night. The district released a statement saying it does not agree with how Live Oak High School administrators handled this incident.

The boys will not be suspended and they were told they can go back to school Thursday. They may even wear their red, white, and blue colors again, but this time, the day after Cinco de Mayo, there will be no controversy.
First Published: May 6, 2010 1:22 AM PDT

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-be ... 45969.html

That's bull. An American school should not be recognizing a Mexican holiday or infringing on the rights of Americans either.

The school needs to broadcast the pledge of allegiance to the American Flag every morning.

Dixie

Political correctness carried to insanity, personally I do not view California as part of America.

I would have supported my kids getting suspended

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Nick.Boden@mhu.k12.ca.us

Please feel free to bombard this school with emails to remind them where they are (America) and who they work for (Americans). This is a MEXICAN holiday, not even an important one, and to make American kids set aside their patriotism to accomodate a non-American holiday is outrageous.

The question needs to be asked. If it is an American holiday, will the principal make sure the Mexican students not wear anything with the Mexican flag on it?

Wouldn't this fit somewhere into impeding on their freedom of expression and speech?

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a holiday held on May 5 that commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza SeguÃ*n.[2][3] It is celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla and in the United States.[4][5][6][7] While Cinco de Mayo sees limited significance and celebration nationwide in Mexico, the date is observed nationwide in the United States and other locations around the world as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.[8] Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day,[9] the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico.[10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo

A refresher, this is NOT a major Mexican holiday, it is, as it sounds, the equivelant to St. Patricks Day....So why do those here feel the need to push it onto the American public, as it was in this school, as something important? Why? Well, we could all guess, it is more about forcing themselves and their culture on Americans, making us accomodate them, so they can maintain their lives here, with all the benefits of being in America, it is not about anything culturally significant.

**update** my email:

In regards to the "discipline" of students, in your school wearing the American flags, I ask that you study this Wikipedia information. This holiday is not significant in Mexico, so why should it be here? Well one has to aks this question if they consider themselves intelligent. I believe your actions towards the flag wearing students, is in defiance of the American Constitutions First Ammendment. Although the schools may believe they have the right to dictate to students, while within their walls, what they might wear, I am sure no court would uphold this unless it was about decency standards, or possibly even gang related clothing (or those with profanity). The most basic right of Americans, within our OWN nation is to express our patriotism without being impeded. I stand with the students and their parents, they had very right to express their patriotism, while potentially protesting a school sanctioned minor holiday of another nation. Your behavior was in very poor judgement and you should apologize to all American students for insulting their patriotism, and for not protecting their right to show it

WELCOME TO OBAMA'S TRANSFORMED AMERICA!

[quote="AmericanElizabeth"]Nick.Boden@mhu.k12.ca.us

Please feel free to bombard this school with emails

Here is more contact information from Ingraham's site.

Principal Nick Boden
Nick.Boden@mhu.k12.ca.us
(40 201-6100 ext 40102

Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez
Miguel.Rodriguez@mhu.k12.ca.us
(40 201-6100 ext 40105

http://lauraingraham.com/b/Support-the- ... 30148.html

Here is a comment from one of the students:

http://www.morganhilltimes.com/news/265402-five-lo ...

"I am also a fellow student of Live Oak High School. And it seems by the comments left below by a few students is nothing but propaganda. I have a class with most of the students in this article. And I will let you fellow readers know, these students’ have expressed their patriotism through out the year. A couple display it by sewing on American flags to the back of their backpacks. Making sure it never touches the ground of course. Others show it by wearing the attire such as shown in the picture above. It has not been a problem all year until today. So for those commenting claiming they only wore that for today is wrong. Are they patriotic? Most definitely! And they have been all year. A lot seem to ask why wear that today and not an American holiday. Sadly they have not been able to show it in any American holiday such as Veterans day, Memorial day, Presidents day, and Independence day. Why? Because class is not in secession. Are they racist? Highly unlikely. Because these students are friends with all groups of ethnicities. Including Mexican. As the article states, they were not instigating anything. They were simply standing peacefully as they always do eating their brunch. Its not as if they were waving a flag in the middle of the quad shouting “U.S.A U.S.A!â€