Blame it all on Old Navy.

Actually, do we know this for sure? The article didn't say, except that one of the five kids wore an American flag shirt when he went back to school, too. Were they all friends? Did they all wear the same type of shirts, or different ones? As Kuhjager said, the school was probably scared shitless that this would lead to some altercation, or someone would "complain", (the latter being the real problem; how bad and crippling the risk of "offending" the wrong group is) so they asked them to take it off.

Still, I don't see what the evidence for these kids being asshole troublemakers is, unless I missed something.

 

Exactly the students did this to antagonize the Mexican Students. Again they were within their rights but I doubt they ever wore American Flag clothing before this day, especially a shirt with matching bandanna....... as for the Flag Comment you might want to look at this, I just sent this to Ki Master.........

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/mexicoflag.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/mexicoflag.asp</a>

 

Well, according to the video, one of the students who wore an American flag was part Hispanic. Only the students know what their intent was, so I'm not going to speculate.

 

From that and other articles, yes, they were friends, and they were decked out from head to toe. Bandana, sweatshirts, shorts, shirts, shoes, etc. All just so happening to be worn on the same day.

I'm guessing it's not their everyday attire, and it's extremely improbable that it's a mere coincidence. It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.

 

Let's assume that the kids specifically chose May 5 to wear lots of American flag-related attire.

What's wrong with that?

The school has a large Mexican-American majority. On this day, the Mexican kids were presumably celebrating their Mexican heritage. That's fine. But what's wrong with these students celebrating their American heritage on that day? They weren't harassing students of Mexican descent. They have done nothing wrong.

 

School might've been a bit foolish, but no significant disciplinary action was taken, and it possibly limited complaints from butthurt nationalist Mexicans. Plus, those are some seriously stupid clothes, they're like a really low-budget Captain America costume if the description was filtered through Chinese and then Farsi and then Greek and then Latin and then English. There's no way they'd wear those every day unless they thought every day was Halloween.

Frankly, I'm more annoyed by people who deck themselves in the flag without thinking things through. It's the flag, it's not really supposed to be pressed between your ass and a school chair, or draped over your body after gym class. If you're going to wave the flag, you damn well better respect it.

 

Opinions are going to vary wide enough to drive a truck though in this thread, no doubt.

I remember that until I was in grade three or four, we had to say the Lord's Prayer after they played O Canada at my public school. Did anybody bitch? Nope. As a matter of fact, it simply makes me giggle when I think about it. It was never my bag, but I didn't feel like it was forced on me nor did it have any effects.

In other words, people can wear whatever they want. This wasn't even THAT offensive, from any angle. it's not like they were dressed as Cortez, so suck some Ambient* down with booze and it will all feel better.

Is Cinqo really THAT important? I don't think anybody up here in Canada would freak out if somebody wore an American bandana out on May Two-Four weekend. Besides, we'd WELCOME it, because the Star-Spangled Banner is really cool to stare at when you're wacked out on 'shrooms!

*- isn't that the "It" poison southern Yuppies like nowadays?

 

Everyone seems to be overlooking the fact that one of the priority of a school is to create an environment that is conducive to learning. If there is something that is disrupting that environment they are obligated to do something about it. Whether it was these kids intent or not, they were causing such a disruption, so the administration took steps to minimize it. To be honest it probably didn't even cross the administrations mind that this was going to get all stirred up by the media. It's not like the school banned patriotic apparel, and the kids didn't even get punished. This is just another case of the media blowing shit out a proportion for whatever stupid ass reason they seem to do this.

 

What was causing the disruption was a ridiculous celebration of a quasi mexican holiday.

 

And, according to a FOX News article from the drunk thread, some students carrying / wearing Mexican flags and paraphernalia were asked to either remove or hide them. Now, no students wearing Mexican flags or whatever were sent home, but the boys wearing American flags were only sent home after refusing to comply with demands from administrators. So, all things being equal, it seems that the school did take a rather even-handed approach. But of course, all of the attention is going to go one way and not the other, because people are going to confuse someone dressing as Rex Kwon Do with a genuine and unimpeachable display of patriotism.

 

What disruption was there though? From what I can gather, the only disruption occurred after the media ran with the story. The school felt that possibly there was a threat that maybe some darker people might want to hurt the flag wearers, maybe. So they acted accordingly. Once they made that decision, that's when the disruptions started, right?

Personally, I don't really give a shit about this. In the grand scheme of themes it's not that big of a deal. What is a big deal is that some stupid high school drama bullshit stupidity is dominating the news while real, much more important stories that will effect people in a far more direct and significant way are almost non existent in most news outlets. That's what gets my ass all chapped up.

 

You don't know the day to day life in that school. Maybe the kids that wore the clothes have a reputation for causing trouble. Maybe there are other groups of kids that look to start fights. I trust the teachers and administrators to make that call over our speculations. How is a fight in the hallways not a disruption? Shouldn't the administration try to prevent that from happening?

In most cases it wouldn't, but since none of us know all the circumstances in this case... again I'll go with teachers and administrations judgment over our speculations.

 

You don't seem to understand some details here.

It's not about the kids and their freedom to wear whatever the hell they want. It's about keeping schools and students safe, no matter what the intent of the students had.

Gang violence is an issue everywhere. Violence statistics or not, if the public servants who are running the institutes feel that there is a danger to students, in any form, they must take action to negate it. They felt that the students could pose an issue for themselves or someone else. In the school or otherwise, because of what they were wearing. Being a punk ass shit*, I could go to school and wear my "Fuck the police" t-shirt but I'll just get my ass handed to me by the son of the local sheriff and his friends. Sure, it's in my rights to wear as offensive of clothing as I want but it doesn't make it right nor smart.

Sure, they haven't done anything wrong but that doesn't make it right. We could argue until we're blue in the face but the fact of the matter is this; the authoritative beings that are didn't want any sort of incident. I would rather send some shithead home to change his shirt, then home with a busted neck.

*Note: not a punk ass shit, nor do I own a shirt like that, lets face it, punk died in the 80's.

 

After sifting through a whole bunch of well-intentionally written posts, I felt that something was being overlooked.
I believe it's along the lines of...when did we start listening to children?
A child of high-school age is just that. I don't care how smart or mature he/she is or isn't.

This thread is about children who were told to change their shirts or they'd be sent home from school.
These children didn't want to do what they were told. It's not as if these children were publicly humiliated, they were sent home from school. Just like any other child gets sent home for not doing what they're told. Obviously for the school it's a matter of safety. Nothing more.
What school would want publicity like this?
There has to be some accountability for breaking the rules at some point. These aren't American troops that come home from Afghanistan to learn that someone says they can't wave a flag or wear what they want.

 

Either way, it's their right. They should be able to wear the flag if they want. You know what they call fear the prevents you from taking a certain action? Terrorism. Just like the mexican-american students should be able to wear a mexican flag on the fourth of July, if they want. It's the first goddamn amendment. You can be offended by the flag, or wrap it around your fucking blow up doll. First amendment.

edit: It just sucks it took media involvement to bring this to the forefront.

 

But they're not average joe public, they're students in an educational institution.

I don't know what pansy schools you boys have over there in Amerkay, but over here when the teacher tells you to do something irrational you fucking do it. Not go to the fucking press.

My uncle talked back to the teacher/priest when he was a lad at school and the priest picked him up by the ears and dangled him over the fucking stairs. Now he's deaf in one ear.

 

Question for you - what are the estimates about the number of children in Ireland who have been abused, raped and molested in Catholic schools? Last time I heard, the unmolested may turn out to be in the minority. If I were you I'd really reconsider taking the behaviour of priests in Irish schools as a point of pride.

 

You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while they're wearing these bad boys?

 

A lot of folks objecting to the school's actions have based their arguments in the 1st Amendment. That would be a perfectly valid statement were we talking about adults.

I'm a high school teacher on the East Coast. I'm not sure of what the laws are in California, but in my area, it's understood that when students enter a school building, some of their rights are waived. Yes, students are free to exercise their rights, but only up to the point where the exercise of those rights will cause disruption in the school environment. This is similar to the "don't shout 'fire' in a theater" idea that governs adult free speech - it's just that in a school, the standards are a bit tighter.

Schools are at their most effective when teachers and administrators can keep control over the situation. That doesn't necessarily mean strict rules and locking down the building, just that they need to be able to ensure that the day continues without undue disruption. Let's face it - high school students by and large don't have the same reasoning capabilities or self-control as someone in their 20's (and I can point you towards the studies that support that idea, if you'd like). The odds of a situation getting out-of-hand because of someone being dumb are higher in a school, and the leadership there was trying to defuse any potential problems.