Cinco de Lawsuit

Remember back on May 5th when a group of students were told to remove their American flag shirts because that day was Cinco de Mayo and American symbols might insult Mexican students?  Here comes the well-earned lawsuit:

Three California high school students are fighting for their right to show their American patriotism -- even on a Mexican holiday -- after they were forced to remove their American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

The three were among a group of teenage boys who were told by a school administrator that they had to remove their patriotic clothing or leave the school because other students were celebrating the May 5 Mexican holiday, raising fears of fighting.

The school district later reversed the administrator's decision, but on Wednesday, the three students and their parents filed a lawsuit against the Morgan Hill Unified School District and the principal and assistant principal.

The students’ attorney, William J. Becker Jr., said state law explicitly grants students the right to exercise freedom of speech by wearing “buttons, badges, and other insignia” and prohibits public schools from interfering with their speech rights unless a “clear and present danger” exists, such as the commission of unlawful acts on school premises, the violation of school rules or substantial disruption of the school’s orderly operation.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has held for decades that students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gates,” said Becker. "Students who wish to show their pride for another nation’s heritage should not have their speech protected more than those who celebrate America’s."

These kids will win this one easily. Even the most liberal judge will have a hard time extending free speech rights to those celebrating a foreign country while denying those rights to kids celebrating THIS country. The school administrator said these kids had to remove their shirts to avoid violence, but not violence they'd commit but violence the Mexican kids might use against them. Punishing one party for the actions or possible actions of another is simply wrong, and the courts will be happy to point that out to the stupid school officials.