In 1969, in Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court ruled that students at public schools had a First Amendment right to wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, even if other students would be offended. The Court noted that because the students were “quiet and passive” while wearing the bands, they did not impinge on the rights of others. “A prohibition against expression of opinion, without any evidence that the rule is necessary to avoid substantial interference with school discipline or the rights of others, is not permissible under the First and Fourteenth Amendments,” the Court added.
Now, a federal court has ruled that a school can forbid the wearing of American flags — American flags! — on Cinco de Mayo, on the grounds that the passive wearing of such flags can cause a “substantial disruption” by causing fights between white and Hispanic students. Not only does this contradict a Supreme Court ruling in a very similar case, but the “disruption” standard itself creates a “heckler’s veto,” giving students and groups of students the ability to censor their peers by overreacting to speech they find offensive.
How about we punish kids who are enraged to the point of violence at the sight of an American flag, rather than censoring our nation’s most fundamental symbol?
This is a ridiculous ruling and should be overturned.
Let me guess...this is hard...would it be the 9th Circuit?!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI say wear them anyway, force the school to remove them from the premises. The holiday is a Mexican state holiday, not a US one.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow about we let the schools and their PTA's set the rules they intend to live by? Just a thought...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe judge should be removed from office. The plaintiff lawyer(s) should be disbarred.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI teach English Language Development at a high school with a large Hispanic population, many of whom were born in Mexico. I will definitely be wearing an American flag on Cinco de Mayo.I live in a state covered by the 9th Circuit.
When I ask/teach my students about Cinco de mayo, 99% of them have no idea what the holiday is actually celebrating.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr you could, perhaps, maybe teach them something as opposed to going out of your way to insult them. Just a thought. You know, since we're paying you to teach and all. Just sayin'.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWearing the American flag in America: insult
Wearing the Mexican flag in America: not an insult
Who are you to judge the intention behind wearing the American flag on Cinco de Mayo or any other day, and why do you assign mean intentions to those wearing the American flag but not the American one?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAh, now, by asking such questions, you have cracked the Alinskyite code. Watch out!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow is wearing an American flag in America insulting? The people who get upset about it are the insulting ones.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo, you consider it an "insult" to wear the American Flag in front of people who made the choice of living in, um, America.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo, I don't. But in the cases I'm aware of the kids have worn flags specifically to show contempt for other people celebrating something they feel is important to their heritage, and I don't think those are values we should promote among our children
If, instead, the teacher was someone who happened to like to wear American flags to school every day and was prevented from wearing one on a day that happened to be Cinco de Mayo, I'd be 100% on the teacher's side.
Bottom line, I agree entirely it's up to the school principal to determine which is which.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf you wore the American flag on St. Patrick's Day, would the Irish kids sue? Would they take it as an insult? No. Wearing an American flag "as a gesture of contempt" is only possible when the objects of contempt have already arrayed themselves in opposition to the American flag.
The Irish are part of the 'melting pot'. They do not set themselves up as enemies of American culture, and therefore have no reason to see Americans as their enemy.
People who see the American flag as an insult are by definition enemies of America.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEven if that was your intent in wearing the flag, how exactly does wearing the American flag in an American public school show contempt for other people?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNope.
The school principle is a govt official. Govt Officials don't get to decide what political expression is permitted based on their interpretation of whose motives are pure and noble and whose are ignoble and offensive.
If you can wear a Mexican flag, you can wear a US flag. If you can wear a US flag the other 179 days of the school year, you should be able to wear it on May 5.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust sayin'. What a ridiculous Coastal elite trope. What does it mean when you append it to what you just said? And what's with the dropped "g"? Kinda folksie for a multi-culti lib, ain't it?
Just sayin'. I think I have it figured out, though. It means that what you just said is meaningless drivel that can be ignored and/or laughed at.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSounds like a plan to teach them something, actually. Such as, wearing the flag of the country we're all living in cannot in any way be an insult.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr that even if wearing the flag *can* be construed as an insult, it still is legal. (I'm sure we could come up with some cases in which that was both the purpose and the effect.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJudging from the annual promotions, Cinco de Mayo is about drinking to the holiday -- a St. Patrick's Day sans Guinness, with Corona and Cuervo instead.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd what, pray, is Cinco De Mayo actually celebrating? Not Mexican Independence Day, which falls on September 16.
Cinco de Mayo is not even a national holiday at all in Mexico. It is marked in one province where, on that date in 1862, the Mexican Army routed a French force.
What Cinco de Mayo is actually celebrating in the USA is the marketing brilliance of the Corona beer company, which latched on to it in a promotional campaign some years back.
Maybe those kids should wear Sam Adams beer t-shirts.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think the Supreme Court's right in this case and, if anything, was wrong in the Vietnam case. School's should (and do) have the right to enforce a dress code, particularly if they feel someone is dressing up in a way designed to make a statement or provoke a reaction.
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