Only problem with that is that July 4th is a national holiday, schools wouldn't be in session to begin with. If the Cinco de Mayo were a national american holiday then I could see a reason why some would be offended, but given that it isn't a national american holiday, they got their panties in a bunch over absolutely nothing. Also, the problem with this whole thing is that it wasn't the students wearing the american apparel being disruptive, it was the latino students that took offense and "felt disrespected" that were being disruptive.

If I were a school administrator at this particular school I would be on the side of the students that wore the american apparel, I would have told the latino students to, in lighter terms than this, "shove it, they are in america and american students can wear the american colours".

That's probably why you aren't a school administrator at any school too, because you'd disrespect students and dismiss their concerns in favor of other students whose concerns you were more sympathetic towards. That, and you might get some kid killed because you didn't think their clothing was noteworthy enough.

If white kids complained about Latinos wearing Mexican flag colors on a patriotic American holiday, I'm sure most school administrators would dismiss this immediately in fear of being branded racist.



Why not take precautions against those acting inappropriately (the upset Latino students) rather than those merely practicing their freedom of expression?

You're sure, huh? Good luck with that.


Because there is no freedom of expression on public school campuses. That's a myth. If there were an unrestricted freedom of expression and the like on public school campuses then we couldn't tell precious snowflakes what to wear, how they could wear their facial hair, that they had to have basic hygiene, that they couldn't talk during class, and all sorts of other things. Falling back on freedom of speech in a classroom setting is a non-starter. It doesn't exist. You can argue that it should exist, but it's currently not the law of the land and never has been.

Just to be clear though, the actual suspensions were not for wearing the clothes, per say, they were for refusing to comply with a request from school administrators:

When your teacher or principle makes a request that you change your clothing and you refuse, then that's when they start suspending you. You've made your point by showing up, anything else is disruptive.

From the Dress Code at Live Oak: "the school has the right to request that any student dressing inappropriately for school will change into other clothes, be sent home to change, and/or be subject to disciplinary action."

Furthermore, from other articles I've read the latino students weren't without their own issues, they also had articles of clothing as things like flags seized from them that day. That seems to suggest the five suspended students weren't target because of what they were wearing, but because they failed to comply with the request to adjust their clothing like everyone else was doing.

In a public school (that has no uniform policy) a student should be free to rep their country any day of the year, whether it is a special holiday for another country or not. I have never heard of a rule of what you cannot wear on a particular day. Sure if you are involved in a celebration of a holiday of some sort it would make sense to wear whatever outfit the holiday suggest, but it obviously seems like these students who wore the American flag didn't care about (maybe didn't even know about) Cinco de Mayo and the truth is...that's not disrespecting the Mexico, Mexican immigrants, or Mexican Americans. Instead of rioting and protesting, the Mexican American students could have perhaps passed out small Mexico flags or pins for those who are unaware of the holiday - would've been more peaceful.

And as the part of the article where the Latino students say they wouldn't wear the Mexican flag's colors on 4th of July - it's not like it's a requirement to wear red, white, and blue on Fourth of July. I wore white and blue last year (because I don't own red), but no one shouted at me for representing Greece instead of USA. No one cares what colors you wear on Fourth of July, or if you are wearing the flag of another country - it's what makes this country what it is anyway.

I know what you mean, the media did the same thing with a race riot that happened at my high school a few years ago. Hope you guys can get past it as soon as possible!

I wasn't suggesting that conditions of free speech were limitless, simply that clothing is an incredibly minor aspect of speech. If the clothing had an incitement to violence on it, I'd get where the school was coming from. It didn't, and this sounds to me like a school overstepping the boundary by a long shot. The controversy is there, removing one innocuous visual signifier - incredibly open to interpretation - is going to do nothing but inflame it.


But that's exactly what the school DID!

Before hearing about this yesterday, I wasn't aware that Cinco de Mayo existed. It certainly isn't celebrated where I'm from, so it is not a "nationwide observance." By the way, Wikipedia (where this excerpt is from) is NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE! It is user edited and can say whatever anyone wants it to. I can go and tell someone how to do brain surgery, having never been to med school.