9TH CIRCUIT DELIVERS LOW BLOW TO PATRIOTIC AMERICANS WITH ITS STINKO DE MAYO RULING

Federal appellate judges ruled to uphold a northern California high school’s ban on wearing American flag T-shirts during Cinco de Mayo celebrations

Live Oak High School in the San Jose suburb of Morgan Hill has experienced fights between Latino and white students during past Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Because they feared the wearing of American flag T-shirts would inflame the passions of Latino students celebrating the Mexican holiday, the school administration banned the wearing of such shirts during the celebrations.

Several patriotic organizations took the school district to court in an attempt to have the ban rescinded. After hearing the case, a federal district court ruled in favor of the school district. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the lower court decision, saying that the school officials' concerns of racial violence outweighed students' freedom of expression rights.

Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote: "Our role is not to second-guess the decision to have a Cinco de Mayo celebration or the precautions put in place to avoid violence. [Past events] made it reasonable for school officials to proceed as though the threat of a potentially violent disturbance was real."

The T-shirt ban and the court’s ruling are simply outrageous. This is the United States of America, not Mexico. Cinco de Mayo is not even a major holiday in Mexico. Many places in Mexico do not bother to observe Cinco de Mayo. Thus, we should not honor a minor Mexican holiday by dishonoring the American flag and by preventing American students from expressing their patriotism..

Rather than ban American flag T-shirts, the school district should cancel all Stinko de Mayo celebrations. There is no reason why Mexican-American public school students can’t celebrate their holiday off campus. If the school district wants to accommodate those students, they can give them an excused absence for the holiday. And that should avert any school violence.