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The judges, like the kids at this school, need a teaching moment - Washington Times EDITORIAL
Rather than deal with violent gang members, the principal cracked down on kids whose clothing might offend the gangbangers. Now a federal judge agrees with the principal, saying we must not annoy young Mexicans who might turn violent.
Rather than deal with violent students, he cracked down on those who had committed no crime. Students who wouldn’t take off their offending shirts were sent home. Some of them later received telephone threats from gangbangers with threats to “take care of” the flag-wearers.
The threatened students sued, saying their First Amendment rights were infringed. A three-judge panel of the notoriously liberal appellate court was more impressed by the schoolmaster. “We hold that school officials, namely Rodriguez, did not act unconstitutionally,” the court concluded....
The court said clothing emblazoned with the Mexican flag was acceptable because Anglo students weren’t threatening to beat up anyone wearing the Mexican flag. “The [Anglo] students offered no evidence that students at a similar risk of danger were treated differently,” the judge said, “and therefore no evidence of impermissible viewpoint discrimination.”
This is about more than political correctness run amok.
Does the U.S. Constitution give immigrants a right not to be offended by your child's patriotism?
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Examiner Editorial: Court decision invites widespread public school violence - Washington Examiner EDITORIAL
According to the facts of the case cited in the Ninth Circuit's decision, students of Mexican heritage made profane threats against other students wearing U.S. flags on Cinco de Mayo in 2009, and referred to the display of the U.S. flag as "racist." The threats of violence the following year that led to students being barred from wearing such apparel stemmed from that perception as well.
Why didn't school officials challenge that false perception? Isn't it their job to teach facts -- including the fact that the flag of the United States belongs to all Americans of all ethnicities? Perhaps the school should schedule a visit from one of the many Mexican-American service members who have fought under their nation's flag in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 12 and a half years so the students can hear what it means to them.
And further, why didn't school officials take action against those making the threats? Violent suppression of free speech is not just intolerant, it's bullying. Isn't ending bullying supposed to be a major focus of educators these days?
As Eugene Volokh, a University of California, Los Angeles law professor and nationally recognized expert on the First Amendment, noted in a blog post on the case, "[B]ehavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. The school taught its students a simple lesson: If you dislike speech and want it suppressed, then you can get what you want by threatening violence against the speakers. The school will cave in, the speakers will be shut up, and you and your ideology will win. When thuggery pays, the result is more thuggery. Is that the education we want our students to be getting?"
That's a question both the court and the local school district needs to answer, and quickly. If they don't, education will become a distant memory in public schools.
