The story behind this ruling is a bit irritating – the school administrators seem to have made a very cowardly and politically-correct decision to bar the wearing of American flags on the theory that Mexican-American students would somehow be incited to violence by this display on the 5th of May. I personally doubt that even high school-age students would be so immature as to get into a fight over an American flag, and in any event the school’s actions only encourages others to use violence and thuggery to shut down debate.-That being said, high schools do need to have some control over student speech for purposes of maintaining order. So this is a close case for me, though I have little doubt that even if the school’s actions were legal they were inappropriate.
The story behind this ruling is a bit irritating – the school administrators seem to have made a very cowardly and politically-correct decision to bar the wearing of American flags on the theory that Mexican-American students would somehow be incited to violence by this display on the 5th of May. I personally doubt that even high school-age students would be so immature as to get into a fight over an American flag, and in any event the school’s actions only encourages others to use violence and thuggery to shut down debate.-That being said, high schools do need to have some control over student speech for purposes of maintaining order. So this is a close case for me, though I have little doubt that even if the school’s actions were legal they were inappropriate.