Viva California

Last week in Morgan Hill, California, five teens were sitting at a table in the Live Oak High School break area when Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez asked two boys to take off their American flag bandannas. Rodriguez then took all five boys to his office and, in a matter of minutes, had sent four students home for wearing T-shirts with
American flags on them to school on May 5th.

Hispanic students said they felt it was an insult for the other students to have worn the American flag on Cinco de Mayo. According to the Morgan Hill Times, "The (latino) students say they want people to know they're proud of their heritage and they believe wearing red, white and blue on Cinco de Mayo is disrespectful." In response to the perceived disrespect, at 11:00 the next morning about 200 hispanic students walked out of school and marched through downtown to the school district headquarters. Along the way they got a police escort from six police cars and a motorcycle officer.

The moral of the story is that while students in California may not wear American flags to school without being reprimanded for offensive behavior, they can walk out in the middle of the school day and not be punished for truancy. In fact, if they walk out of school because they feel "disrespected", they might get a police escort.