http://news.yahoo.com/video/local-15749667/19585803

Watch the video before commenting.

A few important details:
- 2 of the 5 students are 1/2 Mexican
- They refused to remove their clothing (The one wearing his bandana did remove it after he was asked to)
- Cinco de Mayo is a big deal at that high school
- The school's clothing policy says nothing against wearing red/white/blue clothes

I think the school was wrong in sending them home. I'm glad the students didn't get suspended.

The teachers or whoever sent them home should be ashamed of themselves. :whistling:

I don't know what standard of clothing you're expected to wear in American schools but the guy turned up in a headband, swimming shorts and trainers. If you did that in England you'd be laughed out of class. Sounds like he deserved to get sent home.

In parts of Britain, children are regularly beaten for wearing the wrong coloured top.

This thread is at risk of being closed for politics.

Wearing clothes that have the effect of disrupting instruction is not encompassed by free speech, whether those clothes bear a symbol of the political majority or not.

The school district board didn't agree with the school administration, so probably enough said on the issue.

Why do you have to make everything an America vs England thing? You did that in another thread that got locked yesterday, get off your high horse and discuss things for what they are instead of putting your spin on it.

Don't want to start anything here but this is just typical America today.Anything slightly offense or even sometimes completely harmless gets the axe.We so worried about everyone "feelings" it sickens me.These kid did absolutely nothing wrong.Considering two of them were part Hispanic, just makes all the kids and school faculty who complained look like morons.

There are a lot of cultural differences. I'm english and most american things seem strange to me. No need to get so wound up about it :shrug:

-1 common sense.

First off, I don't think those kids should have been sent home or asked to remove their clothing. I also think it's reasonable for someone to feel that it's inappropriate to turn an American Flag shirt inside out.

This being said, it certainly seems to me that they were doing this to cause trouble. I mean really, swim trunks? I somehow doubt he would have decided to wear American Flag swim trunks to school on some other day to show his patriotism. If their intention is to provoke that's not only inappropriate but I take a dim view of their attempt to obscure it behind "patriotism," which I find insulting. However I don't see any reason why the administration should have done more than explained this to the kids - not only does it seem unnecessary to ask them to remove the clothing but they should have known it would blow this out of proportion.

I also think that claiming to be discriminated against is pretty silly.

What is Cinco de Mayo exactly ? Why is it bad to wear american flag coloured clothes in America ? Those people who sent them home are strange.

I know it is strange, but some people don't go to American schools so can only speak from experience about English ones. [/sarcasm]

There's your first answer


This I'm not commenting on AT ALL. Periode. Not saying anything about how I fought and bled for that flag..

oops.

Jeez, chill out will ya? That was uncalled for. I've never said or insinuated that any country is somehow 'better' than another one.

Believe it or not, people in different countries have different attitudes towards different things. I clicked on the story, saw what the guy was wearing and based on my own experience of going to school in England concluded that he deserved to get sent home. That is because where I live most schools expect you to wear a uniform. Now, as I said in my post which you took offence to, I don't know what you're expected to wear in schools in America, and so I don't know if what he wore would be considered unacceptable.

> Tapout shirts

They deserved it.

Anyway, this all seems rather silly. Never heard of Cinco De Mayo though.

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle Of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Usually to most people, they just make an excuse to drink tequila and/or wear sombreros. It's mainly a Mexican holiday, so I guess that school had a lot of Mexican students, and the school probably thought the 5 kids were there to provoke a negative reaction to the Mexican students.

Personally, I say the school was out of line for sending them home.

To me, it sounded like he was saying something that amounted to "what's wrong with you people" and I find that offensive. He did the same thing last night and it's not acceptable.

Don't worry, it's mutual. I mean really, marmite? Marmite?!

But back on topic,


I agree that if people found it provocative their best course of action would have been to ignore it. Unless this was part of some ongoing issue I'd also suggest that the people take a moment to consider why they find it provocative, and if they really should.

At the same time if these kids were being disruptive than it was right for the administration to get involved. A better course of action would have been talking to people, both those taking offense and those causing the problems. I wasn't there so I don't know the real situation but from that news report it sounds like there wasn't an underlying issue here and this could have been resolved with a few discreet discussions rather than turning it in to a big deal.


There are potentially larger issues that this is tapping in to, perhaps intentionally but I'd guess not, but they can't be delved in to without involving politics.

It's a mexican holiday from what I can tell, the school that this happened to is 40% Hispanic and many students were complaining that the boys were being disrespectful and racist, despite the fact most of the boys were Mexican themselves.

As much as I hate to say this, it could have been avoided if the school had a school uniform... *Shudders*

Thanks, I dont see the problem, St Georges day in the UK if im wearing red/green/white i dont care, neither dose anyone else. Ok its a weird combo but point it, is I wont put much thought into dressing in those colours, so it would be a coincedence. If they did it on purpose its bad, if not then its an accident thats easy to forgive.

Before I didnt know weither you were American saying ou were a I think the term was Jarhead or something which means marine, but was thrown off by saying you lived on an island full of sheep, I though new zealand. I now have an answer.

How dare you, marmite is a way of life over here

There are codes to what students can wear, depending on the school. Some ban hats from being worn. Some ban kids from wearing pants well below the waste and/or if it is way too baggy. Overly offensive shirts are banned (shirts depicting violence, swear words, hate, and so on).

Yeah, in the US it's sort of the Mexican/Latin American equivalent to St. Patrick's Day. That is, it's more a cultural celebration and reason to party than anything else.

In parts of the US with large Hispanic (particularly Mexican) populations it can be a really big deal, just like St. Patrick's Day is generally wildly celebrated where there are large Irish populations. However at this point St. Patrick's Day is more of a universal thing whereas Cinco de Mayo remains more regional.

I can't answer that without breaking the rules about politics here but I'll send you a PM explaining some of the wider issues involved.