Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Middle School Student Told To Remove American Flag To Avoid Racial Tensions

There is another bizarre story out of our public school system where a school official at Denair Middle School in Sacramento, California told 13-year-old Cody Alicea to remove an American flag from his bike because of fears that it would trigger “racial tensions.” According to this interview with the Superintendent, Cody has now been informed that he can display the American flag after a review of the supervisor’s decision — and a national outcry.

I remain perplexed by such decisions of officials. As with the mindless application of zero tolerance that we have seen on drugs and guns with absurd results, I cannot imagine why an official would view the solution to such a threat as being to silence the student’s first amendment rights. This is akin to saying, “your free speech is bothering a bully, so stop speaking.” If there is a student or students who will turn violent at the sight of an American flag, they need to be removed from the school. Ironically, Cody has been flying his flag on his bike for two months but was told to strike the colors just before Veteran’s Day. Nice timing.

There is no indication of whether the superintendent considered the decision by this official to be fundamentally at odds with free speech and good judgment. Superintendent Edward Parraz agrees that “the First Amendment is important” but adds “[o]ur Hispanic, you know, kids will, you know, bring their Mexican flags and they’ll display it, and then of course the kids would do the American flag situation, and it does cause kind of a racial tension which we don’t really want. We want them to appreciate the cultures.” The evidence of such appreciation of other cultures appears to be forced silence. It is rather easy to achieve the appearance of cultural harmony when when students are told to be silent on their cultural or national values. The idea is to promote pluralism with the expression of different views — not claiming success by avoiding any expression (and rejection) of views.

The official insists that he or she was trying to protect Cody, but that is a rather sad statement when students are taught that they should hide their views to avoid being attacked in our public schools. If that is the reality of the situation at Denair Middle School, the entire school needs to be placed under special supervision with added measures to protect the students and their free speech rights.

Source: KCRA

Jonathan Turley

127 thoughts on “Middle School Student Told To Remove American Flag To Avoid Racial Tensions”

  2. Yes, how could locking up innocent children and telling them to sit down and shutup for 7 hours a day and then doping them up if they dont, be a bad thing? What was I thinking?

  3. And you love to make unfounded blanket statements like “all public schooling is bad.”

  4. Frank,

    “Worse, there is an anti-public education movement in this country that takes stupidity like this & conflates it to mean all public education is bad.”

    I couldn’t agree more. There is definitely an anti-public education movement that wants to see an end to public schools–so they can be privatized. We usually hear about the “bad” public school stories–rarely about the positive things that are happening in public schools across this country.

  6. That’s right.

    Keep the kids mal- or uneducated as their dumb parents and feed ’em only Happy Meals.

    They’ll grow up to think Brawndo is good to water the crops.

    Because Brawndo’s got electrolytes.

  7. “For what is meant by saying that a government ought to educate the people? Why should they be educated? What is the education for? Clearly, to fit the people for social life — to make them good citizens. And who is to say what are good citizens? The government: there is no other judge. And who is to say how these good citizens may be made? The government: there is no other judge. Hence the proposition is convertible into this — a government ought to mold children into good citizens…. It must first form for itself a definite conception of a pattern citizen; and, having done this, must elaborate such system of discipline as seems best calculated to produce citizens after that pattern. This system of discipline it is bound to enforce to the uttermost. For if it does otherwise, it allows men to become different from what in its judgment they should become, and therefore fails in that duty it is charged to fulfill.”
    – herbert spencer

    in other words yes, all public schooling is bad.

  11. I think the principal and superintendent need to be removes because they cause racial tension.

  12. Mespo got it right when he said it was a stupid decision that was corrected. At least we can congratulate the Super for doing the correct thing. Do they not fly the flag at this school for the same reasons? There are some principals and school officials who just don’t get it. Luckily, most of them are doing their jobs correctly.

  13. I cannot imagine why an official would view the solution to such a threat as being to silence the student’s first amendment rights.

    Because they are either incapable of, or too lazy to parse the words in the constitution, with their own responsibilities to protect and educate children. It is easier to enforce draconian rules, than to have to explain the nuances of shades of gray in the world of human interaction.

  15. On perusing the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah) archives, I find the text of the original pledge as written by Frances Bellamy, to wit,

    “I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of my country and to the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

    Sorry, I took a class in formal logic in college, have the text, and often consult it. So…

    I understand that the Pledge was revised after The Great War (aka World War I) so that emigrants would not, in saying the Pledge, pledge allegiance to the country from which they emigrated.

    The United States is a country north of the United States, and the United States is a country south of the United States.

    Estados Unidos Mexicanos, anyone?

    Mexico is a country in North America, Mexicans are thereby North Americans, and the Mexican flag is an American flag.

    Chile is a country in South America, Chileans are thereby South Americans, and the Chilean flag is also an American flag.

    Which American flags are allowed in America (by which I mean both North and South continents)?

    What causes hatred? What causes selfishness? What might prevent them?

    Amerigo Vespucci (aka Americus Vespucci) was born in Italy, so I understand; are all American flags therefore Italian flags?

    As long as we, as a culture, confuse the symptoms of a problem with the process of the problem, and seek merely to make the symptoms vanish from our awareness, the process of the problem will tend to take on endlessly new forms.

  17. He?

    Flag Removal

    Parraz says the supervisor had information that Cody’s safety was at risk because of the flag. Some students had complained about it and had apparently made threats.

    Parraz says the supervisor had information that Cody’s safety was at risk because of the flag. Some students had complained about it and had apparently made threats.

  18. This was a poor decision ultimately properly resolved. I understand the motivations of the school official in protecting order, but that certainly will not trump constitutional rights. The school official was acting as school official and not constitutional lawyer. I would give him some understanding here and not assume he was intentionally denying a guaranteed right. Was he wrong? Yes. Was he woefully inept in furtherance of his stated intention of promoting pluralism? Yes. Was he intentionally and maliciously trying to deny a child his constitutional rights? Probably not.

  20. Sadly, there are a number of people who get into education that have no business teaching or leading children. Some are hopped up on the power trip, some are so frightened of the modern world that they create obtuse, and ultimately counter-productive, rules that make their districts look like buffoons.

    Worse, there is an anti-public education movement in this country that takes stupidity like this & conflates it to mean all public education is bad. They are heavily invested in Brawndo and see a big pay day coming.

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