Some students in Morgan Hill, CA decided it would be a great idea to wear t-shirts and bandannas sporting the American Flag. While this is not particularly interesting they decided to do it on Cinco De Mayo. The administrators of the school were not amused and ordered the students to change their attire or go home.The students elected to go home rather than face suspension.
I understand the staffs' position. They want to maintain order in their school and felt the patriotic display may incite fights or other unpleasantness. They assumed the children of Mexican descent would be offended as it is their holiday, which some of them were, and wanted to keep the peace as they best saw fit. Keep the children in their seats and have them shut the hell up.
It's sort of like a kid sporting Old Glory at St Patrick's Day in Boston. You know those drunken Irish would've beat the living crap out of....oh wait.
Still this whole thing is ridiculous. While the students who sported the American Flag may have been in the 'learn English or get the fuck out of my country' sect, they still did nothing wrong by simply wearing this on May 5th, or any day. It's not like they were wearing the Confederate Battle Flag on Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.
To coddle children away from debate is not preparing them for adulthood. While I know students don't exactly have freedom of speech in schools I think stifling them on this issue is doing everyone involved a disservice and further inflaming the debate on immigration.
"The boys will not be suspended and were allowed to return to school Thursday. We spotted one of them when he got to campus -- and, yes, he was sporting an American flag T-shirt." - MSNBC.com
Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees
6 comments:
Hmm see that's a tough one for me, while yes wearing the shirts on any given day is not a big deal they were obviously doing it on purpose to incite a reaction.
Kinda like if they had worn big pointy white hats....probably not illegal but a really really bad idea!
???
Everyone I work with has been on this rant the last few days about how "they should be able to wear a flag if they want to! This is America!", but they are so blinded by their own patriotism that they fail to see that these kids did this on purpose to try and hurt another group of kids.
If they had been wearing swastika t-shirts and offended the Jewish kids, would anyone have minded that they were removed from school that day? These boys were clearly trying to cause a problem, and is sad that they are trying to hide behind the flag in order to garner support and protect themselves from the punishment that they know they should be receiving as a result of their just being flat out a**holes.
In my opnion, I am glad they were punished. I don't want kids growing up thinking it is ok, to purposely try and hurt or anger other people. What the heck is happening to this country? Why is no one nice anymore?
I heard about that and honestly have mixed emotions about it. I'm sure they probably wore the shirts to start an uproar of sorts, though.
Seriously?? That is ridiculous. That is a Mexican holiday... and it's only really celebrated in the capital city of Puebla. Why are we being so overly sensitive about a holiday where people's (in America) main goal is to see how much alcohol they can imbibe... not to celebrate the 4,000 Mexican soldiers that kicked France out of their country?
I would be irritated at the children's attempt if Americans knew/celebrated the real meaning of the day.
And for those of you comparing this incident to wearing a KKK outfit or swastika on a day such as MLK day... that falls into the realm of racism against an entire ethnic group. Wearing an American flag to remind people that we are, in fact, in America does not.
I agree w/Me. It's not like their Independence Day, just one of those "let's drink" holidays that no one really knows the meaning of. But yeah, you shouldn't do crap just to irritate people either. I felt sending them home might have been a bit much. I doubt if any kids would have said much about it.
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