Caroline Schaeffer |
A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that school administrators acted appropriately when they asked students wearing American flag shirts to turn them inside out during the school’s Cinco de Mayo celebration. The court says the threat of racial violence outweighed the students’ freedom of expression.
The AP reports that the California court cited the history of violence between white and Latino students on that day. Administrations expressed concern that seeing the American flag would stir up tension among the Latino students. These issues were deemed sufficient cause to limit the students’ rights.
William Becker, one of the lawyers for the students, says he plans to appeal the decision, and would take it as far as the Supreme Court if necessary. He made an apt point about the court’s judgement:
Via the AP:
“The 9th Circuit upheld the rights of Mexican students celebrating a holiday of another country over U.S. student proudly supporting this country,” Becker said.Instead of forcing school kids to change their clothing, shouldn’t this issue of violence be addressed? If just seeing an American flag causes other students to get violent, there is a larger problem at hand. If violence had occurred, the blame should not have been placed on the students who were purely exercising their freedom of expression. This is just another case of people blaming things in people’s environment for the causes of violence, instead of expecting and demanding that people exercise personal responsibility and show tolerance for different opinions.
As all of these students, regardless of heritage, are living in America, shouldn’t they be (at the very least) tolerant of the American flag? (As in, not cause violence?) And since 100% of these students benefit from the luxury of living in America, shouldn’t they all show the flag a little more respect?
Did school administrators have just cause, or were their actions purely political? This is not the first time that Americans expressing their patriotism have been asked to remove a flag or change their clothing.
This just goes to a larger issue: is the U.S. government and the institutions under its authority truly working for a harmonious multi-cultural and diverse society that respects the sacrifices, traditions, and political institutions that made America great? Or is it allowing the nation’s fabric to be pulled apart at the seams by being too willing to let immigrants from less free and less prosperous nations (or else they wouldn’t be here) implement their ideologies in our political system?
It is not wrong to stand up for the institutions that made the United States a free and wealthy nation – and a desirable one for millions around the world to immigrate to and live in. We need to keep America a free country for everyone who lives in it – immigrants included.