Don't wear the American Flag on your shirt in California schools, you might offend the Mexicans.

[Char-Nobyl]

Are you really defending criminals that illegally enter this country? Seriously?

Interesting choice of words. Tell me, when you call them "criminals," is it because entering the country illegally is a crime, or because you're trying to paint all illegal immigrants as cartel thugs and drug mules long before they even come within sight of the US border?

The only thing illegals deserve is to be deported back to their country of origin in the most humane way possible. If they don't like their country then come here LEGALLY or seek asylum, but nobody has the right to illegally come here.

I see. So I suppose you think that citizenship is super-easy to obtain? Fill out an application, put it in the mail, and a week later, you get your passport and a plane ticket into the US?

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

There are already laws about what a school can and can't do, just look at when the students wanted to protest the Vietnam war by wearing arm bands.

They both need to stop because, as its been pointed out, there was past threats from both parties when they confronted one another. I didn't think I need to point this out, but kids being kids, a reason for both sides to stop would be that it would be a way to prevent violence happening on school grounds.

Dont we have enough people screaming/crying about what they can and cant celebrate on school grounds? I sincerely doubt the Mexican students were celebrating Cinco de Mayo just to piss of conservative white Americans. There were however non-hispanic kids using the American flag to as part of a scheme to antagonize Mexicans celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

To me it is clear which group was in the wrong and therefore deserving sanctions, and which group wasnt and therefore deserved to be left alone.

The first year I would say the Mexican students were not in the wrong, however they learned that, pissed people off and they did it the next year knowing that people were going to react in a certain way and yet they still did it. The White students also knew what was going to happen that day as well, so the in turn equally did something they knew would cause a reaction. Both groups should cut the sh*t. If you want to celebrate Cinco De Mayo or your American citizenship, do it somewhere else. School is not the place for it, perhaps a parade that featured both groups would be a better outlet.

Except people were stupid to be pissed off by a single day celebrating something besides mainstream American culture. There's nothing wrong with celebrating for the sake of celebrating. There is something wrong with wearing the American flag just to try to piss people off. The motives are pretty clearly different.

As I pointed out before, the first time this happened, fine its just an innocent celebration. However, the second time it happened, the people were well aware that it was not liked by everybody.

Yes, you're mindlessly repeating a point I refuted.

So the Mexican students did it knowing full well people did not like it last year.

Oh no, this clearly means that they're not swayed by people being dicks. How very horrible of them to do it despite the fact some people have an irrational dislike of it. Oh wait... maybe they should just ignore people having an irrational dislike of a holiday.

I just question the intent of students that decided to celebrate it during school the following year, as apposed to just celebrating it during a parade.

Well that's pretty stupid. Considering that people *gasp* celebrate holidays, and that they celebrated it the year before there is absolutely no reason to believe that they suddenly only celebrated it for the sake of pissing people off. I mean wtf, really? You think the holiday they celebrated before for fun is suddenly going to be celebrated to piss a handful of jerks off?

This is a school, not a civic center. If people want to celebrate Cinco De Mayo, do it else where. The same goes for people that want to celebrate being American.

Lol, celebrate being American? Yeah, sure. That's totally relevant to this.

But no really, there's no reason not to let them celebrate. Xenophobic brats who try to cause trouble should be forced to learn a lesson instead of them catering to that BS "This is the USA!"

I went to school to learn about mathematics, science, ect. Not to go to a place where two groups can have a pissing contest as to who is more "proud" of what they are. There is a time and place for such things, school is not one of them.

There was no pissing contest until one group did something. So blame both groups! Oh wait no, let's just blame the people who couldn't just let a single holiday go by.

Kids being kids, yes they would celebrate something just to piss the other off, just as how the other kids would wear certain shirts just to piss the other kids off. Both sides are human, so both have the ability to be dicks.

I never said don't celebrate holidays, but there is a TIME and a PLACE for such things. School is not the place for such an holiday.

Both sides should just let it go, there is no need to celebrate Cinco De Mayo AT school. School is not the place for such things. The only exception to this I could see is if it was in a Mexican history class because then it would be RELEVANT to what is being taught.

My bottom line is that school isn't the place for such a celebration.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Are you really defending criminals that illegally enter this country? Seriously?

Interesting choice of words. Tell me, when you call them "criminals," is it because entering the country illegally is a crime, or because you're trying to paint all illegal immigrants as cartel thugs and drug mules long before they even come within sight of the US border?

The only thing illegals deserve is to be deported back to their country of origin in the most humane way possible. If they don't like their country then come here LEGALLY or seek asylum, but nobody has the right to illegally come here.

I see. So I suppose you think that citizenship is super-easy to obtain? Fill out an application, put it in the mail, and a week later, you get your passport and a plane ticket into the US?

never did I once say that it was easy to obtain. I stated that people should come here legally, that is all. I don't care if you live in South Africa, Jordan, South Korea, Russia, Germany, Mexico, or Canada. If you come here, do it legally.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

There are already laws about what a school can and can't do, just look at when the students wanted to protest the Vietnam war by wearing arm bands.

They both need to stop because, as its been pointed out, there was past threats from both parties when they confronted one another. I didn't think I need to point this out, but kids being kids, a reason for both sides to stop would be that it would be a way to prevent violence happening on school grounds.

Dont we have enough people screaming/crying about what they can and cant celebrate on school grounds? I sincerely doubt the Mexican students were celebrating Cinco de Mayo just to piss of conservative white Americans. There were however non-hispanic kids using the American flag to as part of a scheme to antagonize Mexicans celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

To me it is clear which group was in the wrong and therefore deserving sanctions, and which group wasnt and therefore deserved to be left alone.

The first year I would say the Mexican students were not in the wrong, however they learned that, pissed people off and they did it the next year knowing that people were going to react in a certain way and yet they still did it. The White students also knew what was going to happen that day as well, so the in turn equally did something they knew would cause a reaction. Both groups should cut the sh*t. If you want to celebrate Cinco De Mayo or your American citizenship, do it somewhere else. School is not the place for it, perhaps a parade that featured both groups would be a better outlet.

So... let's say you like video games. You ware a shirt or otherwise express your love for video games at school. I go ballistic and bring in a giant poster of Jack Thompson and start yelling obsenities at you and threaten you with violence. The school decides to ban both video game references and Jack Thompson posters.

How is this a victory for anyone but me? The only reason I had the Jack Thomson poster was to antagonize YOU. And, now you can no longer express your (presumably) innocent love for video games? Which is what I wanted to stop in the 1st place.

By banning the celebration of Cinco de Mayo you are rewarding the people who responded irrationally and who unfairly wanted to stop people from celebrating what they thought was an important event, and you are punishing people that did nothing wrong.

The whole point should be to prevent violence, not for one group to have a "victory". That makes it sound like the situation is "us" vs "them" and its a battle for "victory". NO, its a school. School is for academics, not video games, ethnic or national pride. I went to school to learn math, science, ect. not to be subject to having to listen to two sides b*tch and moan about something that has no place is school.

You want to show video game, anti-video game, Mexican, or American pride? Join a parade, heck make a AFTER-school club about it, but DON'T make me have to listen to why your proud to be Mexican or American, because that's NOT why I go to school.

Once again, why not just focus on the ONE group that decided to make this into an issue of "us vs them". I remember going to school and LEARNING about how and what other cultures celebrate as a means of LEARNING about other cultures.

Frankly I am tired of dealing with laws/rules made because of stupid people doing stupid things. I thought sollutions like this were crap when I was in school, and I still think they are crap now. Punishing the entire class/school because of 1 kid (or group) is not justice for the perpetrator OR for the innocent.

Personal responsibility means that you alone are responsible for your OWN actions. One reason I believe that personal responsibility is on the decline is that we like to punish/prohibit everyone because of the actions of a few.

Last I checked, this celebration was not part of the school systems way of teaching about Mexican history. It is simply a student event, not a school organized one.

If people want to be proud, then be proud, I don't care about that. However, when you make a big thing about it, then it becomes an issue. Think of it like religion, if I'm Muslim and I want to be happy that its Eid ul-Fitr, then fine. However there is no reason for me to make a big thing about it to other students. I don't need to let everybody know what day it is today in order for it to be a happy day for me.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

On Cinco de Mayo... This sounds like the teens or whatever wanted to piss off some people, so I say it's a good call. Go nuts.

Yes, God forbid someone wear a T-shirt depicting the flag of the country they're in. Frankly if someone get offended by seeing the flag of the country they currently live in, that sounds like their own fucking problem.

Or maybe we can look at this in context and see what it's a deliberate move, not someone just happening to wear an American flag. It's a rather obvious gesture to more or less say "Screw your foreign holiday"

Flags when used to promote nationalistic BS can rather obviously be offensive.

Doesn't matter why they were wearing it, it's the United States. In the United States, you have the right to wear the American flag for whatever reason, however bad, you want.

If I go to Mexico and a bunch of anti-American Mexican nationalists are flying the Mexican flag on the fourth of July, I don't really care. Because it's Mexcio and you're going to see the symbol of that country in that country.

Now, should they do it just to stir up trouble? No. Do they have the right to display the flag? Absolutely. If someone else gets offended, that's their own damn problem.

EDIT: No, seriously, if Fred Phelp's burning the flag and protesting like little kids at military funerals is protected speech, this had better damn well be.

If you want to talk about rights, it is the school's legal right to curtail freedom of speech within the school. Court says so. End of discussion if you want to take that route.

If its the schools right, then are you saying that you would not be against the school if they decided that the students couldn't celebrate Cinco De Mayo? As you said the school does have the right.

 

[Baradiel]

You shouldn't wear your country's flag on your shirt because you look like a tool.

And anyway, it seems to me that the school was trying to avoid tension and conflict. Obviously it didn't work, and the problem has ballooned to huge proportions, but still. They tried.

 

[Deathmageddon]

What the hell? For one thing, cinco de mayo is celebrated more in America than it is in Mexico, and also... um... THIS IS AMERICA. (Unless you're reading this and you live in another country, in which case this is not America)

AMURRICA, M***********S!!!!

 

[Char-Nobyl]

Are you really defending criminals that illegally enter this country? Seriously?

Interesting choice of words. Tell me, when you call them "criminals," is it because entering the country illegally is a crime, or because you're trying to paint all illegal immigrants as cartel thugs and drug mules long before they even come within sight of the US border?

The only thing illegals deserve is to be deported back to their country of origin in the most humane way possible. If they don't like their country then come here LEGALLY or seek asylum, but nobody has the right to illegally come here.

I see. So I suppose you think that citizenship is super-easy to obtain? Fill out an application, put it in the mail, and a week later, you get your passport and a plane ticket into the US?

never did I once say that it was easy to obtain. I stated that people should come here legally, that is all. I don't care if you live in South Africa, Jordan, South Korea, Russia, Germany, Mexico, or Canada. If you come here, do it legally.

You ignored the first half of my question. That's certainly not telling of you.

never did I once say that it was easy to obtain. I stated that people should come here legally, that is all.

Yeah. Because illegal immigrants are basically just coming here to try and get a free vacation, right? Nothing about fleeing squalid living conditions, trying to provide for families, etc. Nothing like that at all.

Because, hypothetically, if those were possibilities, it might mean that the time and effort necessary trudging your way through the Department of Immigration aren't luxuries that they can afford.

I don't care if you live in South Africa, Jordan, South Korea, Russia, Germany, Mexico, or Canada. If you come here, do it legally.

Funny you should say that: Arizona justified their relatively-recent immigration law with that same sort of logic. It didn't just require Mexicans to carry proof of citizenship at all times lest they risk incarceration: it required that all immigrants do so.

But the funny part I alluded to? Arizona police don't seem too keen on demanding the man with the British accent present his papers as they are with virtually anyone Central-American looking. It was just a pale attempt to make a new and absurd kind of racial profiling seem non-racist.