Not safe to display American flag in American high school

[Hikari]

Not safe to display American flag in American high school
Author: Eugene Volokh Source: Washington Post
Here is the link to the article http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/27/not-safe-to-display-american-flag-in-american-high-school/

Today's Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School Dist. (9th Cir. Feb. 27, 2014) upholds a California high school's decision to forbid students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

This is a classic "heckler's veto" — thugs threatening to attack the speaker, and government officials suppressing the speech to prevent such violence. "Heckler's vetoes" are generally not allowed under First Amendment law; the government should generally protect the speaker and threaten to arrest the thugs, not suppress the speaker's speech. But under Tinker's "forecast substantial disruption" test, such a heckler's veto is indeed allowed.

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The problem I see here for transgender people, is the court said that these students couldn't display the American flag because it would likely cause violence against them. It would be very easy to extend that logic to say, that due to the potential of violence against a transgender student, she cannot wear that skirt to school.

I find this court ruling most disturbing because if your first amendment rights don't apply if you are in school, where in the world would that leave gender identity which in many places has no laws at all protecting it? This kind of discrimination could really be hurtful to transgender youth, and while I missed my chance to transition young, I will fight as much as I can for the chance for others to do so.


Edited by LH to comply with Posting Guidelines--added in author, source, snippet of article, and places OP's personal thoughts below dotted line

[suzifrommd]

I agree, Hikari. It is troubling on a lot of levels.

One thing is not clear from the article is how high a bar was set. Did the school have to prove it tried other means of protecting the students? Did the school have to prove that there was imminent danger? Was this limited to an emergency situation, or could it be applied as an everyday occurrence?

It is my understanding (as someone who does spend a lot of her time in a school), that the rights of a school to infringe on student freedom of speech is highly conditional, and the school system has the burden of proof that the action was necessary. However, we are in loco parentis when children are under our care, so we not only have a right, but a duty to avoid situations where harm can befall them.

[Hikari]

As I understand it the previous year threats were made against students wearing American flags. Aside from the school administrators mentioned rumors of potential Gang activity and offensive language directed to those who "stole California" from Mexico.

That is my understanding at least of it. I need to read the court opinion on it to see what truth there is in the various articles, but I like the Post so that is the article I posted

[Vicky]

This was an ugly little skirmish by some ultra right wing students (the ones wearing the U.S. Flags) and a group of hispanic students whose sympathies lie with California's earliest history as part of Mexico. 

The students wearing the U.S. flags were doing it deliberately to antagonize a group of Hispanic origin people who were showing off Mexican flags, making the U.S. flags  "gang colors" and likewise the Mexican flags.  The U.S. flag had been commandeered for gang taunting by this group, who would be our most likely bullies in cases of TG students.  It was a corruption of something good for a bad purpose, and school authorities did not want the gang violence and chaffing that this was likely to produce.

This is the same general idea that allows schools to forbid any other gang regalia on school campuses,  This was not a case of something that would be a peaceful expression of first amendment chatter, and the feigning of innocence on behalf of the flag wavers got caught.  Thems was fighting wordds!!!

[Joelene9]

  Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated in Mexico as it is here.  It is celebrated in the Mexican state of Puebla, but not quite like here in the SW US.  It is a national holiday in Mexico, but for the vast majority of Mexicans, just another day off.  There were cruising all day along N. Federal by the teenagers here but in the past few years the local law enforcement discouraged this practice due to traffic and safety concerns.  The "California" (I'm being nice here) problem had crept into here the past 2 decades.  There was once parades with the Mexican culture theme with both the US and Mexican flags present.  Now only the Mexican flag is displayed. 
  The problem here is that showing the US flag is being more and more vilified.  It is not like "wearing the dress" as alluded to in the first post.  However that may come to pass as multi-culture bias will produce a plain vanilla rules and regulations trying to satisfy all groups and the transgender may be excluded in these rules.

  Joelene