Can we have a cite that the vice principal sent them home because of their attitude? This is a local story for me, and I’ve followed it closely in the news, and I’ve never heard that claim made.
The reports are that they were just sitting at lunch, and were approached by the vice principal.
I don’t buy that for a second. I’ve been a teacher. It doesn’t work that way. None of this happens in a vaccuum. There is always context and history involved. Can I prove it in this case? No. But I know America hating, PC liberal administrators are a dittohead fantasy. I never saw political considerations at all, or even knew anybody else’s politics on the faculty. It’s all about keeping peace and quiet.
Just to clarify once more. I’m not saying the adminstration did the right thing. I think they fucked up. I’m just saying I think it’s extremely unlikely that their motivations were racial or political. I think they were trying to avoid a disruption. They made a mistake, but their villification has been way over the top.
Nobody was sent home.
I also totally agree with this, at least in the legal climate that existed when I was in high school (that is, fighting got you at most a few days suspension, not expelled or charged).
Which, for me at least, begs a number of other questions, the first being: how did they just “go home”? They had to be allowed to go home. And that permission comes from the school’s authorities. It looks like they were not allowed to stay in school, which is a fine point, but it could be seen as punishment: they were not allowed access to their classes.
Every public school I know of has a closed campus policy: once there, barring illness, family emergencies or disciplinary action, the kids are there for the entire school day. No one get to just go home, even to “avoid punishment”. The school must have given them a choice, which in itself is bizarre. What did the VP say, “wear your shirt inside out or go home?” How is that maintaining discipline or authority? :dubious:
I tend to agree with Dio, in that I doubt the motivation of the VP was political correctness, but more likely a “let’s head this off at the pass” type of thing. I said that because it looks like PC-ness run amok, and that is how it was reported. And really, it’s not a misconstruing or mischaracterization to call it that. “It” being the incident and not the motivation. IOW, the VP did the wrong thing, but for the right reasons.
I disagree that the context really matters in this case. Old Navy Tshirts are just not inflammatory. The “insult” is all in the perception of the Mexican-American students (and the possibility of such an insult must have resided in the perception of the VP and school administration, otherwise no action would have been attempted). Did the kids say to themselves, “heh, we’ll show THEM” and wear the shirts? Maybe. Probably. But even so, even in HS, in America you’re allowed to be a dick. And you’re allowed to wear an image of the flag, no matter the day. How could you not be, given that you live in the country whose flag it is? Anything else makes no sense, pragmatically or practically (or politically).
I can’t believe that as liberal as I am, I have found myself in the last week agreeing with Fox News and Glenn Beck (about the constitutional rights of the Times Square bomber). Hell must be freezing over…
Wasn’t it considered trolling when they showed up wearing a U.S. flag? What’s the difference?
If this was group of Japanese-American kids wearing Japanese flags, would the Hispanic kids have been offended?
If these kids were wearing Nazi swastika flags, or even Confederate flags, then I could easily see how it would be offensive. And those flags would probably be offensive on every day of the year, not just 5 May. But they weren’t, they were wearing an American flag.
What exactly were they offended by? The flag, or the attitude of the other kids? Was it because the American flag wearers were all together in a group?
If a bunch of white kids got together the day before and agreed to wear white tee-shirts in protest of Cinco de Mayo, then certainly their *intentions *could be considered provocative, but it would be stupid to send home every student who came to school wearing white shirts.
Is the American flag that rarely worn in schools in that town? When I was in high school I had an American flag patch on my backpack for crying out loud.
If these Mexican kids are getting offended that a small group was trying to pre-empt their holiday, then I’m sorry, they need to harden the fuck up.
They were American kids. They were all American kids.
I also haven’t seen any evidence that the American kids of Mexicano heritage were “offended,” by the American flag, even though the intention was clearly to troll them.
What does that have to do with the boys in question being targeted for their “attitude”? That was the question.
Oh, please. By that definition, no student is ever sent home. He just prefers to go home over some other punishment.
Actually, one of the kids was wearing a T-shirt with Confederate flags on it.
That’s some mighty weak trolling. A group of, what was it, five kids wearing American flags. That’s about as weak as it is ever going to get. When I was a kid I had to deal with bullies calling me names like “beaner” or “spic”. Like I said, these kids need to toughen up, because they are soon going to find themselves in a world full of racist rednecks who couldn’t give a shit about them. Making a huge deal out of such petty shit isn’t going to help them.
NO ONE expects the Obama Death Panels!
What do you mean by “targeted?” I’m saying if they were singled out, I’m confident it was for attitude, not dress per se. What do you think, that the adminstrators just hate America?
I seriously doubt that’s all they were doing. In fact, I flat out call bullshit on it. It’s not believable.
Then you haven’t been reading the news stories about this incident:
I mean that you said some kids wore flag clothing and weren’t sent home, but others were. You’re saying it was their “attitude” that was the issue, not the clothing. Give us a cite for that.
Sounds like that confirms my suspoicion that the white kids were being little bitches about it.
The cite is that not all kids wearing flags were sent home. Also, it’s just common sense. What do YOU think the motivation was?
So, no one was actually offended, but if they were, they were rightly offended. You win either way. Astounding!
BTW, the next time Sarah Palin is offended by something, we’ll just assume that the other party was being a little bitch about it. Right?
What cite? You haven’t given one. Besides, it’s entirely possible that some kid wore flag clothing and didn’t cross paths with that particular vice principal.
There is nothing in any of the news reports that says one thing about the kids’ “attitude”. I think the vice principal was an idiot. Maybe he really did think there would be a fracas. That is, after all, what he said.
Eh, I guess that answers some of my questions then. It may be that these kids had a history of talking shit and stirring up trouble. I don’t think the solution was to demand they remove their American flag shirts or get sent home though, as that doesn’t address the underlying issues, whatever they may be.