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May 10, 2010

California School Districts May Lose Federal Funds
Over Banning of American Flag

Public Advocate of the U.S. Inc. may file a letter with the Department of Education asking for an immediate review and finding in the banning of the American flag at several California schools.

"We are consulting our attorneys and hoping the respective schools correct themselves as part of this process," said Eugene Delgaudio, president of Public Advocate.

In recent weeks several school districts have banned patriotic materials and the American Flag, as if it is some form of propaganda rather than the national flag.

Under the guise of security or not offending others, efforts are being made to ban American flags worn by private students.

In lay terms, this can not be tolerated as normal conditions and may be prohibited actions.

The banning of patriotic clothing may be a violation of the right to free speech if the dress code is not uniformly applied.

And if administered improperly could be viewed as violating several federal regulations. Congress passed and the president signed many years ago a provision in the federal regulations protecting students under the "Hatch Act" and other privacy laws which prohibit the use of propaganda, brainwashing or the use of pyschological methods to undermine the students mental or rights to an education.

Prohibiting the national flag for a patriotic student or the offspring of an active military parent would definitely qualify as a disruptive action by an administrative edict prohibiting a student from wearing an American flag article of clothing.

There is a standing Presidential Executive Order that requires school districts that receieve federal funds to not create an unfriendly recruiting environment for the U.S. military to recruit potential soldiers in the Armed Forces. There are also various requirements in the appropriations by Congress that specifically state that an allegiance to the United States is mandatory for all recipients and there are several other lengthy prerequisites for receiving the funds.

For example, if any amount of federal money is used against the legal interests of the federal government it would be considered as part of an adjudication and investigation by the Department of Education in the disqualification of any further funds and the return of any unspent monies.

from the news wires....................

Five Morgan Hill high school student athletes are now entangled in a national debate over what they wore to school on Cinco de Mayo: shirts and shorts bearing the American flag.

An assistant principal at Live Oak High School asked the teens Wednesday to turn their T-shirts inside out or go home because the red-white-and-blue garb was "incendiary" on May 5.

http://www.securityinfowatch.com/Educational+%2526+Institutional/1316023

Morgan Hill: Teen athletes entangled in debate over U.S. flag clothing

(San Jose, California) Four students exposed raw feelings about race and immigration in a Morgan Hill high school this week when they made the provocative choice to wear shirts and shorts bearing the stars and stripes of the American flag to school on Cinco de Mayo.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15030582?nclick_check=1

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15030582

School That Deemed American Flag Clothing 'Incendiary' on Shaky Legal Ground
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/05/school_that_sent_home_kids_for.php

(It happened before in 2006) Schools ban flags as immigration debate gets tense

From April 14,2006 USA Today online: "Several schools in Colorado, Arizona and California recently banned the display of national flags and the wearing of clothing with patriotic symbols as the divisive national debate over immigration has brought angry confrontations between Latino and Anglo students."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-04-06-immigration-flags_x.htm