07 May 2010
American flag sent home
Did you see the news article about the high school students in Morgan Hill, CA who were sent home for wearing American flag shirts at school on the Fifth of May? Amazing! Wearing patriotic apparel might be too divisive on Cinco de Mayo (a holiday that isn't even celebrated widely through Mexico)? Then, the Hispanic students demonstrated through the streets of the town waving Mexican flags? This is just incredible. Patriotism isn't politically correct? This kind of thing just might be why the citizens of Arizona are standing up and saying "Enough!"
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This has been very difficult for me to wade through, being an evangelical Christian, a conservative, and a public school teacher. I 100% support our constitution and use it for my protection. I know more about Separation of Church and State than the average person, because I have actually read Brown versus Board of Education. I know the rights of students--that they have the RIGHT to proselytize even though I as the teacher do not have that right, but I also do not have a right to ‘cut them off’ in a non-classroom setting. We have a basic right of freedom of speech, and that includes our political views, but how far can we take that? Let’s say I have a right to throw a punch, sure! But my rights STOP when I interact with your face.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I’m trying to say. People, those five American Flag t-shirt wearing kids were being JERKS. Someone call a spade a spade, please! I’m not agreeing with the way administration handled it, and from my previous paragraph, I hope you know I support our constitution, but in raising this firestorm of ‘first amendment rights being threatened’, etc. and all the support they’re getting from conservatives, we’re missing a basic lesson that needs to be taught; namely, there is a right way, and a WRONG way to do things.
Erica,
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard about them being jerks. What were they doing? However, even if they were, don't you think the administrator should have addressed the behavior, not the particular attire? It seems to me that taking away the flag was more "incendiary" than anything the boys were doing. And, what was the deal with the Hispanic student protest? This comment by one of them is really bad: "It's disrespectful to do it [wear American flag attire] on Cinco de Mayo," said Jessica Cortez, a Live Oak sophomore. "They can be a patriot on some other day. Not that specific day."
So, I agree with you that behavior should have been addressed ... on both sides. And thank you for bringing up that aspect of the situation. But, the fact that wearing patriotic clothing on the Fifth of May would be incendiary at all is disturbing. It highlights the depth of the issue our country is facing.
At first I would have said the administration handled it wrongly (in fact, I did), but now I'm not so sure. I really think the t-shirt wearing kids were purposely provoking the Hispanic students. Why do I think this?
ReplyDeleteI want to hear it from these 5, that they didn't in fact show up to start something, didn't plan to wear the t-shirts all together, but randomly showed up--oh, look at you! same shirts!, and randomly it just happened to be 5th of May and randomly wandered into the midst of a culture of students and randomly started pumping their fists in the saying "USA, USA, USA!" But, hey, they were just being patriotic, exercising their RIGHTS. Hmmmm . . .
I think this Jessica was taken out of context. I understand what she meant--this was a purposeful, hurtful act. The fact is, they wouldn't have shown up in these t-shirts 'to be patriotic on a different day'. They did it on purpose THAT DAY.
That's the difference. Does that make sense? It WAS incendiary.
I think this incident DOES highlight the depth of the issue our country is facing! Absolutely--and it scares me, because it's getting worse and an incident like this just added fuel to a fire that is already raging out of control.
Been thinking about this a little more . . . and, I do agree, that even if their motive was to be mean and try and start something, it does fall within their rights, actually. Can't argue with that. But, I can't argue with the administration's decisions, either. That is within their right to do something if they perceive a threat to school safety. If an Hispanic student had thrown a punch, I'm sure they would have followed school procedure (expulsion for fighting at a high school in most cases) and it wouldn't matter who 'started it' or what the reasons were.
ReplyDeleteYes. I think of the famous saying "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (attributed to Voltaire). This is a very important concept for many of us in military service - especially with the current administration. The kids wearing the American flags had the right to do so, even being jerks in the process. The school administrator did not have the right to tell the boys they couldn't wear the patriotic attire because he was contradicting the Constitution. However, he did have the right to send the boys home or apply some other discipline, in response to their actions.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the article I read said that the boys often wore patriotic attire to school. So, it wasn't just this day. They definitely may have been way too much "in your face" about it on that day though.
Good discussion, Craig! I enjoy your blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks Erica. This kind of discussion is why I wanted to start this blog. Discussion helps sharpen everyone's thoughts and helps us see things from other perspectives. Thanks for being my faithful commenter.
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