Video: Principal apologizes for disciplining students who wore American-flag clothing on Cinco de Mayo
posted at 12:20 pm on May 9, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
Closing the loop on one of the hottest controversies of the week, the principal of Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California does the right thing in this video from Friday evening. Just to recap, the school suspended several students for wearing clothing with American-flag themes on Cinco de Mayo, calling the display “incendiary” and warning that it could have led to violence. One aspect of this explanation is the rather unnoted bigotry in the assumption that those students celebrating Cinco de Mayo would have such a hair-trigger inclination to violence that the mere appearance of an American flag would set them off. Jimmy Orr reports on the backtrack for the LA Times:
Live Oak High School Principal Nick Boden accepted the blame while apologizing Friday, saying, “In this situation, I may have moved too quickly in drawing the line of when to take preventative action.”
Officials had cited concerns that fights between students could erupt because of the “incendiary” images of the U.S. flag on the holiday.
“This was never about whether students were allowed to wear patriotic clothing on our campuses. They can. It was about ensuring that our high school campus was orderly and safe,” Wesley Smith, superintendent for Morgan Hill Unified School District, said Friday at a press conference.
The apology doesn’t satisfy some. They want Rodriguez fired. In fact, they’ve set up a Facebook page to solicit support.
Writes the creator of the page: “This blatant disrespect toward our country and anti-American infringement on a student’s right to learn should not be tolerated. Take action. Sign the petition, send emails to the school and tell your friends.”
Even in the apology, the superintendent manages to perpetuate the idea that someone would have a reasonable expectation that an American flag display would generate violence, which sells these students short. Some students demonstrated against the school administration’s backtracking on suspending the dissenters, and from all accounts, that demonstration was orderly, law-abiding, and responsible. The superintendent and the principal really should be apologizing to them as much as to the students originally disciplined for their expressions of patriotism.
The superintendent also manages to blame “bloggers, talk show hosts, and social networks” for painting a poor picture of Live Oak High’s administration, which makes this a rather pathetic apology. Is he sorry that the school administrators screwed up, or just sorry that everyone noticed?
Addendum: We’ve gotten a lot of e-mail about a YouTube video of a UCLA professor calling for an uprising to return the American Southwest to Mexico, but as Verum Serum discovered, that’s old news. It’s from 2007.
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Another example of conservative “leaders” who are unable to think conceptually. It happened two years ago, therefore it’s “old news.” It’s a example of the ongoing campaign to brainwash children. Go to the racist’s government financed school’s current home page and see how the kiddies are indoctrinated.
http://www.santeefalcons.org/
The racist in the video, Ronald Gochez, teaches in the “School of Public Service and Social Justice.” Old news, not hardly. Wake up, Ed.
Kalapana on May 9, 2010 at 2:42 PM
Damn typos, typing and laying back on the couch don’t mix.
Archimedes on May 9, 2010 at 2:42 PM
The knee jerk reaction to surpress the American Flag comes from 40 years of indoctrination…
… but don’t you DARE question their intentions.
That’s racist!
Seven Percent Solution on May 9, 2010 at 2:43 PM
This is the name of the facebook page, it works. Try cutting and pasting this exactly into facebook search.
FIRE Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez
Dr Evil on May 9, 2010 at 1:49 PM
Thanks, got it!
Archimedes on May 9, 2010 at 2:45 PM
Some raw vid
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=65003@kpix.dayport.com
Note the NBC guy making fun of a patriot
macncheez on May 9, 2010 at 2:47 PM
Exactly, just the fact they get away with La Raza is BS. Then to push the Reconquista as well, hey, didn`t someone bring teh word Sedition/Seditious back into the limelight. Maybe they could apply it to some of these real radicals in that movement.
bluemarlin on May 9, 2010 at 2:47 PM
Yes, but the root of the problem is that we have a bunch of foreign nationals in our schools that remain loyal to their home countries and view ours with disdain.
They’re growing bolder all of the time and Americas kids are on the front lines.
We need to get our kids off the front lines and that’s done by getting the foreign nationals out of our schools. No foreign nationals in our schools = no nationalistic displays of foreign patriotism = safer kids.
FloatingRock on May 9, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Love Chief Dan George in that movie. If I am fed up I can’t imagine what most people are feeling.
Cindy Munford on May 9, 2010 at 2:49 PM
In Texas it’s usually a lot of fun, it’s not made into something bigger than it is, it’s an excuse to have a party. When I moved here, I asked my friend what it was for, she is Texan of Mexican descent, and she didn’t know she said, we have always just celebrated Cinco De Mayo – That’s in San Antonio.
I have enjoyed Mexican food, and culture getting tamales to eat on Christmas.
http://redravine.wordpress.com/2008/12/25/tamales-a-christmas-tradition/
There is something different going on in this California school district, that hasn’t got a lot to do with Mexican heritage but an excuse to protest.
Dr Evil on May 9, 2010 at 2:55 PM
Tucker has expose on the school textbook industry, the lies they are teaching and the monopoly they have on Fox right now.
Archimedes on May 9, 2010 at 3:02 PM
And as I think about it perhaps that is what really is behind all of this “200″ walked out of school to protest, they wanted to be shown respect…or they wanted to show they could bully a whole Public School System. Because the System did cave into them because of FEAR of violence. That’s when you call the police – not send anyone home.
Now that this Group has gotten National Attention, this local Azatlan Branch is going to be getting a lot of scrutiny hopefully from DHS and ICE.
Dr Evil on May 9, 2010 at 3:04 PM
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the principal’s rightful concern. According to America’s finest news source, U.S. flag is tainted with more than 200 years of violence, killing over 140 million.
Maybe the principal was concerned after seeing the recalled product on the school property.
novakyu on May 9, 2010 at 3:08 PM
I’ve celebrated Cinco De Mayo at work and don’t have a problem with it in the context of a celebration of Hispanic heritage, but once a Mexican flag is introduced combined with a nationalistic/patriotic Mexicans in an American school with American students….
Cinco De Mayo is too nationalistic to be celebrated as a simple “heritage day”, at least by our students. It needs to be retired.
And on a related rant: Mexico is a basket case of corruption and violence. It’s a POS country and though I’m no fan of the French, Mexico would probably be much better off if the French had stayed.
FloatingRock on May 9, 2010 at 3:10 PM
My comment above was in response to:
FloatingRock on May 9, 2010 at 3:15 PM
Tucker is raking the education industry over the coals!
This is where the fight for a nation must be won.
Per Disraeli,
“Wherever is found what is called a paternal
government, there is found state education.
It has been discovered that the best way to insure
implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.”
Archimedes on May 9, 2010 at 3:22 PM
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Walter-Rodgers/2010/0330/Illegal-Hispanic-immigration-is-undermining-American-values
This is a good article..
reshas1 on May 9, 2010 at 3:26 PM
Non-apology apology.
PrincipledPilgrim on May 9, 2010 at 3:28 PM
Agree, and when I think about it, I probably gave him too much credit by calling him a wimp. That would infer that he knew what was right, but too afraid to stand up to them. He was likely, as, or more offended by the flag wearers, than the Mexican kids were.
macblanegirl on May 9, 2010 at 3:33 PM
I understand, I live in San Antonio and I was born in Tucson and I am of Mexican descent myself. It is fine if people are celebrating it like say St. Patrick`s Day where everyone is Irish for the day. When they start manufacturing a fake Holiday for Mexican Independence and kids get in trouble for wearing American Flags then it has gone too far. Or, like in Houston , the kid gets suspended for taking down the Mexican Flag. By the way, tamales and Christmas are a long time tradition in my family, at least when we were living close together. It is a big job and needs many hands.
bluemarlin on May 9, 2010 at 3:36 PM
To keep his job Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez should be required to attend sensitivity training. He is clearly a racist in assuming Mexicans will react violently towards the sight of the United States flag.
AaronGuzman on May 9, 2010 at 3:42 PM
So weird -still no post by some supposed Cons who the other day were defending this principal.
CWforFreedom on May 9, 2010 at 3:46 PM
Hmmm. So what’s the statute of limitations on sedition?
AZCoyote on May 9, 2010 at 3:47 PM
Hmmm. So what’s the statute of limitations on sedition?
AZCoyote on May 9, 2010 at 3:47 PM
Precisely!
Archimedes on May 9, 2010 at 3:50 PM
Thank you, I was saying the same thing earlier.
bluemarlin on May 9, 2010 at 3:51 PM
Being a native Houstonian, when we had office Christmas parties, there was always tamales. When I was in elementary school in the 60s, we had a Spanish teacher come in once a week, so being exposed to the culture is nothing new. However, what’s happened in the last 10-15 years is different. There’s been an invasion of uneducated illegals that bring the barrio culture with them. Alot of streets and neighborhoods in Houston look like a Juarez flea market, if that good. That’s not racist, it’s fact. Anyone who lives in a border state knows what I’m talking about.
TxAnn56 on May 9, 2010 at 4:07 PM
I am with you there, I lived in Houston for 12 years before SA. I can attest to your statements. There is not any attempt to assimilate anymore.
bluemarlin on May 9, 2010 at 4:11 PM
If there is, as the man states, a need to “ensure that our high school campus was orderly and safe,” then the question that needs to be asked is:
“What is it in this situation that would cause the school to be unsafe?”
The answer is “The wearing or otherwise displaying of the American flag by some students,” and not “The twisted and problematic attitude of some Hispanic students,” then what we have here is a principal with an incorrect understanding of priorities.
An understanding, I might add, that calls into question his fitness to continue holding his position.
greggriffith on May 9, 2010 at 4:22 PM
..Jeee-zus! This guy is a total tool!
Are you people listening to this cretinous idiot dumbass? He is spouting all of the left-wing edu-speak bull-sh*t about how the students and the MSM were very fair and the (implied) response of the right-wing blogs were the screamers here.
It would have been more genuine if the guy had just come out with the old Animal House line, “Hey, you f*cked up; you trusted us!”
..and what the hell is the purple-and-white have to do with anything.
Students and educators are so-o-o-o-o lame. Students have an excuse; fat, dumb, salary-sucking educators do not.
The War Planner on May 9, 2010 at 4:25 PM
We need to be careful with the ghetto culture this school is fostering.
The latin students started spouting crap about disrespect etc… an issue big in gang circles and used in tandem with intimidation of others.
Perceived disrespect IS something they consider worthy of violence. This type of ghetto culture has to cracked down on immediatley.
Free speech will be just a mirage if intimidation like that is allowed to stand.
scotash on May 9, 2010 at 4:37 PM
who is Rodriguez and why do they want him fired
happyfeet on May 9, 2010 at 4:43 PM
here Mr. Cap’n Ed’s link is bad so you can click there and learn Rodriguez is a Vice Principal what is sort of short on the people skills
happyfeet on May 9, 2010 at 4:46 PM
Come on, you’re not new here. You know how the bloggy thing works.
Cindy Munford on May 9, 2010 at 4:54 PM
They have learned from Muslims. Americans of the leftard persuasion will always give in to bullys.
lonesomecharlie on May 9, 2010 at 5:05 PM
Meanwhile, back in the real world…..
Then maybe you shouldn’t have allowed celebrating of the holiday at all if it has the potential to incite violence.
xblade on May 9, 2010 at 5:16 PM
What Kalapana said.
The video taken at UCLA may be 2 years old but it’s as relevent to today’s news as ever. An enterprising citizen journalist could, for example, visit the school and see if that teacher continues to pour out his communist racist hate to the students. Or ask the administration or the school board if they are aware of it or did anything about it. Heck they could even see if they would use the ‘S’edition word to describe it.
DaMav on May 9, 2010 at 5:26 PM
Live Oak has their very own chapter of the racist hate group MEChA.
http://liveoakhs.ca.campusgrid.net/home/Student+Activities/Clubs?file=club+directory.htm
Ed, old news? Really?
Kalapana on May 9, 2010 at 5:32 PM
Mexico stole the southwest from the Kiowa and the Commanche and the Apache and the Navajo and the Zuni and the Hopi and the other tribes of the region so I don’t see where they have any business complaining about someone taking it from them.
Rip Ford on May 9, 2010 at 5:58 PM
How many of our latino bretheren even know what Cinco de Mayo really is? It is meaningless to Americans or should be. It’s completely Mexican. Google it. Here’s a partial:
Cinco de Mayo is a date of great importance for the Mexican and Chicano communities. It marks the victory of the Mexican Army over the French at the Battle of Puebla. Althought the Mexican army was eventually defeated, the “Batalla de Puebla” came to represent a symbol of Mexican unity and patriotism.
Want to celebrate it? Move!!! Out!!!
LarryG on May 9, 2010 at 6:00 PM
If Mexicans want to fight another war about which flag flies over our nation, including our schools, count me in.
FloatingRock on May 9, 2010 at 6:07 PM
What happens when you want to wear the stars and stripes when your school has a Stars and Bars Confederacy Day?
Perhaps the principal would want to stop trouble from erupting.
Privatize all the schools and this will cease to be a problem.
AshleyTKing on May 9, 2010 at 6:24 PM
Fire the superintendent too.
Slowburn on May 9, 2010 at 6:42 PM
And we have a principal with an incorrect understanding of the law.
The law doesn’t allow principals to ban speech because disruptions might be caused by the twisted and problematic attitude of some Hispanic students.
The law would only allow principals to ban speech because of disruptions might be caused by reasonable people.
If it’s not the reasonable people that would cause the disruption, then the speech can’t be banned (unless the banning is part of a universal dress code – e.g. no flag colors on clothing, etc.).
What if one crazy student freaked out and caused a disruption every time he saw a “Save the Earth” t-shirt? The principal can’t ban that speech simply because an unreasonable person caused a disruption.
blink on May 9, 2010 at 7:00 PM
I wonder if blink read the book, Blink. The book seemed to extol snap judgments and prejudice to me.
IlikedAUH2O on May 9, 2010 at 7:07 PM
There was a comment, that summed up a lot about the hypocrisy of this school’s administration, para phrasing: Did they not raise the American flag at the school on May 5th? Did they all abstain from saying the pledge of allegiance, while facing that same American Flag in their classes that day?
There is something wrong in this California school district it’s as if they are teaching the kids some kind of cultural segregation.
I love tradition so tamales at Christmas was fun, it makes people feel included, when they get introduced to local customs.
Dr Evil on May 9, 2010 at 7:45 PM
+7%…!
Seven Percent Solution on May 9, 2010 at 8:15 PM
Was this an apology? Didn’t sound like it to me. He was lecturing us all that we should leave them alone. Sounds more like he is mad they were caught.
Blast, way too much information going on out there. This must be what Obama meant about us being exposed to too many arguments.
JellyToast on May 9, 2010 at 8:58 PM
Yep… Either fire him or make him wear a USA FLAG PIN on his coat every day for a year… JUST TO REMIND HIM WHERE HE IS…
Khun Joe on May 9, 2010 at 9:09 PM
So does anyone know if the school flew the Mexican flag that day or the American flag–if at all?
chickasaw42 on May 9, 2010 at 9:27 PM
Yeah, “Dr.”, it’s just shocking that bloggers and talk show hosts would try to turn this into a “political statement”. Anyone trying to suggest that the suspension of students for wearing American flag symbols could possibly be a political issue must be insane!
What a slobbering nitwit.
Jaibones on May 9, 2010 at 10:30 PM
Very Poor apology … you want to talk about rhetoric … this guy knows how it’s done.
Try again my man … this won’t cut it.
ORrighty on May 9, 2010 at 10:44 PM
Our country’s flag is offensive?
kingsjester on May 9, 2010 at 10:47 PM
What the …. Is he apologizing? or running for office?
flameofjudah on May 10, 2010 at 1:14 AM
The state of public education is a sorry affair. I will strongly encourage my son and daughter-in-law to home-school our first grandchild.
miron on May 10, 2010 at 2:01 AM
at least nobody got tazed.
johnnyU on May 10, 2010 at 5:01 AM
What a charming optimist you are. :)
DrMagnolias on May 10, 2010 at 6:04 AM
The irony is “Cinco De Mayo”…it is just a party holiday, almost no meaning except to party.
They were worried about a meaningless holiday. That’s like saying Pizza is the national food of Italy.
right2bright on May 10, 2010 at 7:26 AM
Apologies or no, the principal should be fired.
zoyclem on May 10, 2010 at 7:40 AM
An apology isn’t enough. This person should be fired and never allowed to teach children EVER AGAIN!
TrickyDick on May 10, 2010 at 8:35 AM
The American Mexicans celebrating a battle in a war they lost to the FRENCH.
Then they have the nerve to say the flag of the United States should not be seen on May 5th. A__Hats.
Kuffar on May 10, 2010 at 9:07 AM
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