Several months ago students were encouraged to parade around school expressing their sexuality, or homosexuality as it were, by wearing t-shirts, buttons and tape over their mouth. On the “Day of Silence”, hundreds of schools allowed their students to participate, while instructing teachers to not discipline students who refused to participate in classroom discussions. Obviously my argument against the Day of Silence at the time was that students are there to learn, not to express their sexuality, and certainly not to take a vow of silence which would preclude them from participating in classroom discussions. At the time I was told by quite a few people that these students were only expressing their First Amendment rights, and the principals did nothing wrong by allowing them to do so. Let’s see what those same people will have to say now!

School officials at Hobbton High School in Sampson County NC have banned articles of clothing which depict the American Flag.

Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.

The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.

Gayle Langston said her daughter, Jessica, was told to remove her stars and stripes t-shirt.

“Today she wanted to wear her shirt, and I had to tell her no,” said Langston. “She didn’t like it at all because I knew it would get her in trouble. Of all days, 9/11, she could not wear her American Flag shirt.”

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

As John Hawkins notes:

Maybe it’s just me, but if you’re trying to pick, “which flags should be permissible,” it’s a no-brainer that the American flag is allowed — after all, we’re in America.

here is Michelle Malkin’s take on the issue:

They didn’t, in other words, want to act like grown-ups and make responsible judgments about acceptable displays of patriotism

Jay at Stop The ACLU

I really can’t see why any country’s flag, minus a terrorist supporting country, would cause problems at the school. Even if they were to choose to wear an enemy flag there would be an argument that it is within their constitutional right.

I certainly agree with the argument that it is within a students Constitutional rights to wear a shirt depicting the American Flag on school ground but I hardly think that is the issue here. What is at stake here is much worse than a principal simply telling a student they cannot show their patriotism in school, it is the underlying reasoning which frightens me.

In my personal opinion the underlying reason behind this policy is multiculturalism. I have talked about this issue in the past, explaining that multiculturalism will eventually mean the end of patriotism and eventually the end of American sovereignty. The principal in this school drafted this policy in an attempt to avoid offending students of different backgrounds. In the early 1900’s such a policy would not have been necessary because America was a melting pot, with all nationalities immigrating here to become Americans.

Over the last few decades the tide has turned on immigration, with new immigrants no longer wishing to become part of the melting pot, instead opting to offer their loyalty to their country of origin while reaping the benefits of being an ‘American’. To these people the American Flag is a threat, because it represents one nation, under God, indivisible.

It is for that reason the school drafted its policy with regards to students wearing items with the American Flag. I am certain this will not be an isolated incident, and much as we have seen the Pledge of Allegiance slowly disappear from our school system, we will soon see the American Flag disappearing as well.

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Constitution, Education