Yes, I’m sure that’s what you meant.
This is pretty much SOP for school administrators.
Authoritarian asshattery and a lack of balls - a bad combination.
Our little flag troupe was probably trying to make a statement, but so what? Schools should be trying to err on the side of free expression.
(Semi-irrelevant side note - I used to work at the same small radio station as John Tinker (of Tinker v. Des Moines School District fame. Never saw him wearing a black armband).
Nice try.
I am married to a hispanic man.
Our 2 kids are “brown”.
We are Americans first.
I feel your pain.
grats on your family
If you are Americans first, why aren’t the “hispanic students” also “Americans” in your post?
Surely you recognize that most, if not all, of the students you are referring to are, in fact, Americans, just as much so as the kids who were sent home. Why don’t you refer to them that way?
Because of their actions.
The students who were upset and angered and felt “disrespected” by clothing depicting an American flag instead of a Mexican flag … What ???
Those students must not consider themselves Americans first.
Why couldn’t those students be more tolerant of the American flag?
Why would any American student be intolerant of an American flag?
Makes no sense.
Did you read that article linked to in the OP? You know, the article we are discussing?
Because none of your post makes any sense in context.
Since you must have read the article before forming and posting an opinion here, you know that the article doesn’t mention any “students who were upset and angered and felt “disrespected” by clothing depicting an American flag instead of a Mexican flag”. So what exactly are you talking about?
Just watched the local news. Two hundred students walked out of class and marched thru town protesting the kids who wore American flags. About 20 kids wore clothes with American flags on them today. No one was sent home, even though the police made a strong presence on the campus.
I think this idiot school administrator just ensured that there will be an annual “wear US flag clothing to school day” every May 5th in Morgan Hill (and other cities, as well). Good job!
BTW, for those not local, Morgan Hill is a small, tight nit town south of San Jose (a sprawling, huge city) that has a strong sense of community. Although it has about the same % Hispanics as San Jose, most of the rest of the town is White. San Jose is a White minority city, with lots of Asians as well as Hispanics. Morgan Hill likes to think of itself as not-San Jose.
So will you be encouraging this proposed yearly counter-demonstration? To what aim? What do you see as the goal of “an annual “wear US flag clothing to school day” every May 5th in Morgan Hill (and other cities, as well)”? I know that you support the notion, I just can’t figure out why or what you think it would accomplish that would make you say “Good job!” to the idea.
Also, have you figured out what “celebrate” means, and are you ready to state your position with respect to schools & holidays now?
You’re right. I was referring to a different source.
I had read the article linked by OP, and then I viewed this video, where a student expresses how she felt “disrespected” by the American flag, in America:
Cinco de Mayo is a beer holiday.
It is certainly NOT a “Mexican heritage” day.
Not in Mexico.
Everyone knows that.
To me, a GREAT part of being an American, is the introduction and assimilation of different cultures (meaning yummy food) into our lives.
I remember when my mother in law would become annoyed with sales people who assumed she did not speak English, based on how she looked.
She was a very “Indian” looking Mexican. Sales people would talk to her in Spanish.
She’s tell them:
“We’re in America, speak English when you speak to me.”
She was a pistol.
She would not take any crap.
She would never have felt “disrespected” by an American flag.
If she were still alive, she would be outraged by this stupidity - American kids not being allowed to wear an American flag in America.
Anyway - I’ve wandered even further off topic.
Carry on!
I neither support nor condemn it. We’re talking about teenagers, here, and to a certain extent their “job” is to rebel. The Man just came down on them, and the natural reaction is going to be to rebel. My only position here is that maybe The Man should learn a lesson.
I have no idea what you’re talking about. If want to say you scored a point on this, go ahead. It’s a stupid side issue that I have no further interest in. I’ve said all I need to say on the subject.
Cal State at Northridge.
I absolutely agree, however I’ll also point out that I have a very hard time imagining anyone getting angry at the sight of an American flag during Saint Patrick’s Day, Swedish Heritage Day, Oktoberfest, the Greco-American parade or any other such festival. And I’m pretty sure that most people at your average Cinco De Mayo celebration in the US wouldn’t take it amiss either. All the immigrants that I’ve known are pretty proud to include the “-American” hyphenate as part of their background.
In this case we’ve got some American teenagers getting upset at the presence of the American flag. As I said earlier if it was a bunch of asshats running around screaming “USA! USA!” at a 5/5 celebration I’d understand people getting ticked off (although not necessarily agreeing with what the school official did) but just the presence of our country’s flag?
Leaving aside some of the “Go to Mexico” rhetoric I’m pretty much on the same side of the argument as magellan on this one.
“As much as we’d like to accept your entry, we are unable to because you clearly have no fucking idea what you are talking about.”
How many teenagers got upset at Live Oak HS? Could you give us quotes from them describing their feelings?
So all that “hurray! good job! they oughta…” was insincere? You didn’t really mean it? You were just being inflammatory or something? Maybe you were drunk? Personality disorder?
Why did you post how great it was, then when questioned back off the whole thing?
All you said was:
When called on it, you embellished:
Well, that isn’t what you said (I quoted you, we can all read it) first, but your answer still hinges on “celebrating”, as if you think that “celebrate” means a big blowout party with hookers and fire trucks and blow and farm animals.
Sure, that’s a meaning, but not the only one, and certainly not the only definition that fits “festivities”
[[
](Celebrate Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com)
The fact is that you were wrong with your decree that this isn’t something schools should be doing. Celebrating holidays is something that schools do, and is a normal and accepted part of the curriculum. I doubt that you have much of a problem with students being told to celebrate Memorial Day, or the 4th of July, or most other holidays that schools celebrate and/or teach about. You made, it seems, an off-the-cuff remark that you cannot now defend, so you just try and ignore it.
It’s a pity, really. I’d rather have known you as someone who can admit a mistake, see what caused it and then have another go.
Gah. How stupid are you Bo? You think it’s a good thing these kids were punished, because they were trolling. This is so stupid. Acknowledging a troll is precisely what gives them power. If the kids had been beaten up, they might have had a reason not to try and wear the shirt again. But forbidding them gives them a reason to rebel.
Furthermore, since it involves freedom of speech, it’s guaranteed to get a bunch of people riled up. So not only are they going to rebel, they’re going to have supporters.
And, of course, you came into a thread where people knew that, and argued with them. You seemed to think that someone would agree with you. If you weren’t stupid, you’d know that wouldn’t happen. And once you devolved to nitpicking people, you’d realize you already lost.
The only other option there is that you are a troll, at least by your definition. Apparently, it doesn’t matter if you actually believe in something: knowing there would be a negative reaction was enough reason for you to assume these kids were trolls.
So, congratulations. I don’t know if it’s permanent, but I’m putting you on the list with Rand Rover and ivn. Too annoying to warrant space on my computer screen.
And note that this is only because it’s the worst thing I can do to you.
I think he’s ignoring you because you’re being a complete retard with regard to this.
Look, let’s take a neutral damn example. My rural-ass PA high school had “School Spirit Week” with stupid themes for every day (dress in camo day, dress in pjs day, etc.) that was basically an excuse for the cheerleaders to pretend that crap mattered. So “Spirit Week” was a school celebration.
It was not mandatory in any way.
If, however, a school administrator sent me home to change because I was, say, wearing a suit and tie on “pajamas day”, that would then change it from “a school celebration” to “the school is telling me how to celebrate”. And that would be complete fucking bullshit.
** Just like this case was.** So what a bunch of dudes didn’t want to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and decided to be semi-contrarian about it. It’s about on the same level as me protesting Cinco De Mayo up here in Penn State by not drinking for the day. The only difference is, thankfully I’m an adult so I don’t have some butthurt principal getting all stupid about the fact.
Oh yeah, add me to the roster of liberals who think that the American flag is never offensive within the borders of this country in any context.
I understand what you’re saying. To be clear, for me it’s not about the flag or being offended by the flag. The flag-wearing students, I believe, wanted to be provocative. It doesn’t matter what form it took, the problem I have with it is the - what I perceive to be - the taunting nature of it. I think these kids were using the flag shirts and headbands be disrespectful. And then when they weren’t allowed to do it, they hide behind the flag and the First Amendment and cries of political correctness. They were being punks, and instead of accepting the consequences of their behavior they’re still acting like punks by whining about it to the press.
I admit that I loathe anti-immigrant trolling, and that certainly plays a role in how I feel about this. But I feel more strongly that it’s wrong to turn this into some kind of flag/anti-flag argument because to my mind, that’s not what it’s about. It reads to me as a metaphorical display of USA! USA! like you used in your example.
If they’d been wearing t-shirts with a fat Mexican wearing a sombrero taking a siesta under a tree, I’d find that equally wrong.
And I do see the point of others who way it’s stupid to get upset over a shirt or offended by the flag, but again it’s not about the flag. I don’t like the tacit message behind what these kids did. I understand why the school administration would want to tamp down one group of kids taunting another. Not from a PC standpoint, but from a position of maintaining order in that school for everyone.
As I said earlier, I don’t know if the school administrators standardly interfere anytime there is conflict between students. Do they regularly step in to quell disruption? Have there been other times where groups of students have been taunting groups of students? How did they handle it? Do they have a policy regarding provocative clothing at school? Granted, I don’t know. I would like to know. I wonder if we had more information on the history and context of this event if peoples’ perception would change. I do believe it’s entirely possible that they bungled this badly by not being consistent with similar incidents prior to this, and so it looks like something it was not.
Similarly, there were a group of students at a local high school who wore t-shirts in support of their friend who was killed in a gang-related shooting. Now, this was in a suburban district, and the school suspended the students. The administration used the same kind of arguments (meant to be provocative, incendiary, sending a message to the rival gang), and the administration was supported here. We are not going to allow a potential conflict between two rival groups in this school to become part of the school day. While you’re at school, you are here to learn, not to continue and out-of-school rivalry. We aren’t going to let a potentially disruptive situation occur here at the school. I hope that’s what the administration in CA was trying to do. I assume that’s what they were trying to do, but that’s my biases showing.
Dude, did you lose your sense of irony in a snowboarding accident? :rolleyes:
I’m done with you. You are so dense on this subject, having painted yourself into a corner, and now you’re just lashing out blindly at anyone who disagrees with you on this.
Thanks, but let’s just let this go. **Bo **is an idiot, impervious to reason on this subject.