Mexicans VS Whites/Americans - Flag Incident
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/.../flag_incident

I've heard that soon after that incident, the teacher then took the American flag, threw it on the ground and spat on it. I've heard this not by news, but by my brother and several of his friends that go to the school. (As you can tell, it's back near my hometown in Idaho). It's created such a dilema that the district is planning on closing down the school for now. As students are now writing such things on their hands as "White Pride", "Mexican Pride", et cetera. Several students have brought guns and knifes to school as well. And there has been an outbreak of fights going on. Tons of school gangs have formed and now there are groups of whites and mexicans fighting with each other.

I'm curious to know what you all think of this.

Personally, I can understand the teachers point of view. And I find it wrong that the whole situation occured. But for the students to start forming gangs out of this act...it's silly. Now the school is being closed due to threats and gangs and all that nonsense.

Note: In this, I ask general questions not directed at you nor am I attacking you. I'm just venting general frustrations. ^^;

I'm very sad that this has turned into something so racist and divided the student body. It was Cinco de Mayo and I think it's good to have pride for where you came from and be allowed to appreciate your culture. Maybe I'm a little bias because I'm white (mostly, but no Mexican) and some of my family that has married in or been adopted are Hispanic. My family is mixed but racist (my grandparents love their Hispanic grandkids and great-grandkids but don't mind talking badly about other Hispanics and my other grandparents say bad things about the Japanese when I have Japanese cousins). I am against the racism they have, but am for my family being mixed like that. And I believe that America should be the melting pot or mosiac people claim it to be in history class; I think we should be able to be from other countries and still retain our beliefs, holidays, culture. We can mix it, we can be proud, but we can also respect others. I don't want to be like my family and think blood or adoption or marriage are the only ties that can make someone from another culture acceptable. >.<; I think it should be acceptable in any case.

I'm sad to see that the students are so divided about this and I'm disgusted with the teacher. I can't see what point of view he had other than one that obviously has his own ideas about what ought to be American and didn't accept that a student, for Cinco de Mayo brought a Mexican flag. Does that school have a Spanish teacher (that teaches Spanish, I mean), and is he/she not allowed to bring a Mexican flag nor a Spanish flag as part of representation because people mistake it as being anti-American? o.O Or did those get tossed in the trash too? What kind of teacher raises generations that might later represent America and might want to have relations with countries when he's teaching obviously that only "American" culture is accepted? What IS American culture? o.O; I mean, everyone's an indvidual from another country, so it's a little hard to say there's one specific way of life for even people who are six generations or so American (yes, I'm six or more generations back; depends on which grandparents families I'm tracing back). It's sad that so many people think you have to act "white" in order to be an acceptable American(dare I ask, what being white is? I'm European and Cherokee myself, I've found Buddhist to be the closest to what I believe, I'm studying Korean, and I want to visit Brazil, Germany, and Africa sometime in my life - so being mostly white, do these things define white culture?). Do others really have to be washed away of any cultural pride, even if they leave their homeland, to live here in America?

Yup, I ranted because I find that this teacher opened some serious wounds that I have regarding this country involving certain people's thoughts. When I first heard about this, I was pretty upset with the teacher. Still am. Having a Mexican flag in America...I mean, I went to an alternative school that wasn't so strict and one guy on his car had an American and a Mexican flag. It was unifying. And one girl had American flags along with her Italian flags. ^_^ I mean, this is world history; someday those flags might be different (look at how the American flag has changed) and then...that could have been something that person could have held back and treasured, or even his grandkids could have. ^^;

First of all, it doesn't surprise me the slightest. Second of all, the United States is ignorant and retarded (sorry, I live there too, and I'm becoming disgusted with this country).

If the boy brought the flag for celebration, and was waving it around, the teacher should've told him to put it away and not seized it. For all that asinine teacher knew, it could've been for one of the boy's other classes (in Spanish class we were supposed to bring stuff to celebrate Cinco De Mayo, including Mexican flags).

If the boy refused to put it away, then the teacher should've taken it and put it in the office. After all, in my experience, most locker rooms in gym class have an office for the coach to walk into. If it doesn't have that, there's always the supply closet.

Putting a flag in a trash can, especially when taking it from a boy is stupid and hateful. I'm not a big fan of Mexicans (my city is overrun by the stereotypical Mexicans. I'm not biased against all Mexicans, just the stereotype), but this boy seems to have done nothing wrong. In that article, the teacher himself even said he was waving it around, yet didn't mention asking the boy to put it away.

Instead he took it.

If everything else had failed, I would've had the boy take it to his locker or leave it with a Spanish teacher so he could retrieve it later. I wouldn't disrespect his cause of celebration by putting his flag in the garbage. That sends a bad message, and I can only imagine how horrible that poor boy felt.

In all honesty, I'm all for the boy suing. And I'm normally against lawsuits regarding stupid things in the news, though this lawsuit seems completely justified.

As for the school freaking out and gangs and violence erupting, I find it to be ridiculous. If everyone is so upset over what the teacher did, they should take their anger out on him, and not on each other. It seems that the teacher caused a lot more trouble than the boy with the flag. And after hearing about this, I think it was probably intentional, if only slightly.

The school shouldn't be shut down. Instead, they should take control over the situation. Keep adults (such as police officers or security officers) in the hallways during all school hours. If a fight breaks out, quickly take care of the situation and force order back into the halls.

Closing the school is the coward's way out. They need to take control of the situation and show that they won't tolerate that bullshit.

Also, I have a question for you: Did you mean the teacher spat on the American flag or the Mexican flag? After how he treated the Mexican flag, he seems like a white-pride kind of redneck that would worship his own flag, not disrespect it.

People. Are. Stupid.


Plain and simple.

The teacher was stupid to act in such an inappropriate way, and then too foolish to come up with believable reasoning. "took the flag Monday because "white kids" might have hurt the 16-year-old. He said he put it in a garbage can because he had no place else to keep it." Bull-SHIT. It's called a pocket or a desk drawer buddy. ((Or an office/ locker room if it's huge))

"and said the student may have misunderstood him because of his poor English skills." What the fuck, racist much?

The students are stupid for the whole race pride thing and fighting, the administration is stupid for shutting down the school, the students are stupider still for bringing weaponry (the ones that brought said weaponry)...

One stupid act creates a breeding ground for stupidity. e_e

It's so irritating, acceptance is almost the new fad. We're all equal, race has nothing to do with it, give up on the superiority complexes already. e_e

Lawn chair pride for the win! [/no meaning intended]

Another teacher (Mexican) heard of this and confronted him; so she took the American Flag and spat on it; not the white teacher.

I'll give a long response to these replies later. It's so late and I'm so very tired. XD

Great, so the students have these amazingly mature teachers who are desecrating flags like immature little runts. No wonder the students are resorting to violence, their teachers are just such wonderful examples of rationality.

Both teachers should be sacked and sued. Possibly charged with hate crimes, and anything else they can link "Being a bad example and influencing further racial tension, which resorted in violence," to for being charged with.

This is utter bullshit. Humanity should know better.

Wow, that's a damn shame.

Being of both Mexican and Caucasian descent, I can't imagine this happening. Things get out of hand so quickly...

It reminds me of an unfortunate house near my school where there is a confederate flag blowin' in the wind. Anyone who claims the North is free obviously hasn't seen my neighborhood. Where i live, there is a large black and white community that goes to school together. For the most part, we get along just fine, but sometimes...

Well, suffice it to say that racism lurks everywehre.

I think she most likely meant paragraphing, but I wasn't here to see if you edited it or not.

I think she was just trying to point something out. Don't reply with hostility.

Also, dyslexia isn't a reason, it's an excuse to hide behind. I'm dyslexic, thank you very much, and it offends me when people hide behind it. If I can make the effort to overcome, other people can. They just like hiding behind it because it gives them an excuse not to work harder.

Back on topic: The flag may be just a piece of fabric, but it represents where we're from. It's a symbol of our nation, and the nations of others. Therefore, to treat a flag so disrespectfully is wrong, because you're disrespecting the symbol of another country.

It's hostile and hateful and everyone should just leave flags alone.

...

Makes me glad I go to a school that's like 95% white. We can't have racial issues because there aren't enough people.

Instead we have a ton of "wiggas" and "wangstas"

At least you don't have "Wexicans."

Haha very true.

And since you don't have many Mexicans, at least you don't have "Miggers." It's when Mexicans try to be black. It's really, really, really annoying.

Actually we have one of those. Some 4ft tall kid who thinks he's black. He curses people off in Spanish.

Are you serious? God. I hate those idiots.

Yeah, it's like...be your own race, thank you.

1.) When Celebrated in America, Cinco de Mayo is another excuse to get piss poor drunk.
2.) Umm... The kid was mexican. In America. Celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Nothing really bad about that. The teacher was disrespecting someone's customs. He should get fired. I also noticed that discriminatory remark: "Straatman denied saying the words Camelo attributed to him, and said the student may have misunderstood him because of his poor English skills". Innocent enough, but whatever.
3.) This sounds like another case of white supremacy.

Actually, with me it's more like, "Shut your ugly face and be a decent human. I don't care if you're Mexican, black, or Asian. Just be a fucking decent person and shut the hell up plzkthnxbai."

Why is that people are treating Blacks like we are fashion items to be worn out in public?

Hell, not everyone of us likes gangsta rap and the gangsta culture. It's true the roots of gangsta culture popped up during racial inequalities in good honest ways of earning a living (education and employment), but it has no merit and it's just dumb today. It's NOT glamorous or cool. Hell if you want some deep inspiring way to get closer to Blacks, talk to us. Pick up history books and skip the bad parts of it (the parts of slavery and civil rights where people were beat up, tortured or raped--we never hear the good things during those times) for the hopeful parts like the singing, the folk tales and the unity. Look for rap pieces like stuff from Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco. Good men. Hell, Kanye West is good even though people criticize him for that display back during Katrina (but damn I agree with him somewhat).

I was quite amused by Kanye West's comment on the W not liking black people.
though I was overseas at the time of Katrina hitting land, I heard it took 4 days for the W to mobilize national guard to bring in supplies.