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Bay Area students wear Stars-&-Stripes to class


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:lol:

Well, the school district gets pwned on this one.

It's entirely rude and provocative of the 5 students to wear that shirt and bandana, but it's also clear that they're making a statement. I guess they got the response they sought.

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Well this is something of a no-win situation for the school; it's pretty hard to say you can't wear an American flag on your shirt, but on the other hand these boys were obviously looking for trouble. The fact that these five boys got together and decided as a group to wear American flag shirts and bandannas to school on Cinco de Mayo does not say "patriotism" to me; it say racism to me.

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What utter nonsense. I'm not much of a fan of wearing the Stars and Stripes outside of uniforms and such myself, but to demand its absence because it would offend Mexicans? Sporting your own flag in your own country is rude?

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I don't believe they just happened to all wear American flag shirts on the same day, which just happened to be Cinco de Mayo.

On the other hand, even if you can prove the students did it to be provocative, I'm not sure what the school can actually do about it.

I think that'll depend on their policies on things like gang signs and hate speech, and then on whether the school board can successfully argue that these students have violated these policies. Schools often have restrictions on speech that are more severe than in general, so I can see a possibility that this action might be upheld.

It certainly won't be popular though. In essence, you're punishing the students for being provocateurs. It's just a hard case to win favors on.

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What utter nonsense. I'm not much of a fan of wearing the Stars and Stripes outside of uniforms and such myself, but to demand its absence because it would offend Mexicans? Sporting your own flag in your own country is rude?

Context is important. These boys wore those shirts for no other reason than to be offensive. I'm not saying they should have been made to remove them, what I am saying is that we should not allow them to hide their racism behind false patriotism.

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It certainly won't be popular though. In essence, you're punishing the students for being provocateurs. It's just a hard case to win favors on.

Not least because people are already framing it as "punishing Americans for being patriotic". (Not here; in comments on blogs and news articles.)

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Not least because people are already framing it as "punishing Americans for being patriotic". (Not here; in comments on blogs and news articles.)

Why shouldn't they? People are also already framing the students as racists. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

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Well this is something of a no-win situation for the school; it's pretty hard to say you can't wear an American flag on your shirt, but on the other hand these boys were obviously looking for trouble. The fact that these five boys got together and decided as a group to wear American flag shirts and bandannas to school on Cinco de Mayo does not say "patriotism" to me; it say racism to me.

Well, at least you can't accuse the Mexican students of dual loyalty.

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Wait....so then if I'm spending the summer in Mexico and on the 4th of July I see Mexicans with Mexican flags, that means they're being racist towards me? And I would somehow be able to demand that they dispose of such flags?

Major fail on freedom of speech. As somebody else said, they're Mexican Americans, the American flag shouldn't be offensive to them.

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Wait....so then if I'm spending the summer in Mexico and on the 4th of July I see Mexicans with Mexican flags, that means they're being racist towards me? And I would somehow be able to demand that they dispose of such flags?

It certainly seems a bit of a non story to me.

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I don't think the issue is that they find American flag to be offensive, in general.

Rather, they probably find the attempt of the 5 boys to make a political statement using the American Flag to be offensive.

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I don't even neccessarily think the students were being racists. They WERE being provocative douchebags though.

And this is a school. Freedom of Speech does not apply.

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Major fail on freedom of speech. As somebody else said, they're Mexican Americans, the American flag shouldn't be offensive to them.

Appreciate the issue of immigration, illegal immigration, the historical reaction to high immigration and the cultural clashes associated with it. And it's an even hotter topic after that AZ law that a number of other states praised and has them talking about passing ones like it. Just saying that as Mexican Americans the American flag shouldn't be offensive to them fails to take into account any nuance, IMO.

I think the school district was being silly. That said, we'd be hearing about it either way, whether it was Mexican flag on the 4th or this; the intention, in either case, is to rock the boat and get attention.

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