Court Rules School was within Rights Over U.S. flag T-Shirts on Cinco de Mayo

Flickr CC

A federal court ruled that a California high school acted reasonably when they requested a group of students to removeAmerican flag shirts to avoid igniting ethnic tensions. An attorney representing the students is planning to appeal the ruling.

In 2010, students sued the school claiming that the request to stop wearing the t-shirts violated constitutional rights. The court pointed out that the rights of students in public high schools are limited. Students speech can be restricted if school authorities can foresee a disruption or interference with school activities.

“If the school feared a disturbance, it should have canceled the Cinco de Mayo celebration, not deprived students of their 1^st Amendment rights to patriotic expression,” said William Becker Jr., the lawyer representing the students. Becker has stated that he will ask a larger panel of the U.S. 9^th Circuit of Appeals to overturn the ruling. FreedomX, a nonprofit that advocated free speech for conservative and Christian clients, offered the services of Becker to the students.

A three-judge panel of 9^th Circuit ruled that administrators at Live Oak School had reason to fear the clothing with American flags might spark a violent disturbance that would be race-related. The administrator told the students he was concerned for their safety.

In the year prior, a group of students charring a Mexican flag provoked a group of students who

Flickr CC via Steve Rhoades

hung an American flag from tree and chanted USA on Cinco de Mayo. In 2010, some students were kept at home from school for two days due to threats that were issued in the aftermath of the incident.

Two students were allowed to go to class in tamer clothing, while two refuse to change and were sent home. The same students later received threatening text messages.

“The school’s actions presciently avoided an altercation,” said Judge M. Margaret McKeown in a statement for the court. “Live Oak had a history of violence among students, some gang-related and some drawn along racial lines.”