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No sooner does Trump announce he may write an Executive Order mandating colleges allow free speech on campus, then this story involving a high school shows up in the news. Perry High School in Gilbert, Arizona celebrated the USA last week. With one notable exception. On Friday, students who showed up wearing MAGA hats and clothing for the “Party in the USA Day.” By the end of the day those students were told to remove all the gear and at least one student was suspended.
Just before 2:30 p.m., after school let out, the students gathered outside to take pictures wearing the gear and holding the flag, Jones said.
The students noticed the school’s police resource officer taking photos of them and others wearing MAGA gear without their permission, Jones said. When the officer asked her freshman daughter, Logan, for her name, the girl refused to answer, questioning why he needed her name.
“I thought the whole situation was weird. They’re out of school, so why are you coming up to her?” Jones said.
When the girl refused, the officer said she had been a part of a disruption all day, that no one was allowed to have a Trump flag, Jones said. She said he told her daughter to go to the office.
There, administrators asked her what her name was again. She responded that she wasn’t going to answer any questions until her mother arrived, Jones said.
When Jones got to the school 10 minutes later, she found that the administration had suspended her daughter for 10 days.
“She came here today to support America, which is what your Spirit Day is all about. And now that she has refused to give her name, you’re suspending her after she’s complied with everything else?” Jones said.
The entire situation is not only weird, it was handled badly by the school.
So, the clothing was disrupting the school? Did that mean someone tried to forcibly rip the sweatshirt or t-shirt off a student? Did that mean that someone got into their faces and forcibly removed their MAGA hat? Did that mean that a student wearing a MAGA hat was sucker punched like the college student at Berkeley was the other day? Or maybe it was a teenager assaulting an 81 year old.
NONE of that happened? Huh. So tell me again what the “disruption” was?
According to the principal there was disruption at lunch. As to what kind of disruption, he didn’t say. What about the safety concern he mentioned? What kind of safety concern and for whom?
As to the kids refusing to give their names, that wasn’t the case. What they DID do was state they would wait until their parents got there.
Smart girl: “There, administrators asked her what her name was again. She responded that she wasn't going to answer any questions until her mother arrived, Jones said.” If reporters find one example of a student wearing a @BernieSanders shirt etc.. https://t.co/r1StwMjqck
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) March 3, 2019
The principal’s explanation doesn’t make sense when one thinks about asking THIS question.
When Spirit Week was announced, was there a specified restriction on Trump clothing?
If there wasn’t; then the school administration has some explaining to do.
I will note this, if the school was genuinely concerned for the safety of the students wearing MAGA gear, given the examples above, then they should’ve made that abundantly clear. That does not seem to have happened in this case.
In fact, the principal also said that carrying around a flag was disrespectful to the flag.
Parents say students at Perry High School told to remove #MAGA gear, student suspended. https://t.co/5lgbTxZi32 pic.twitter.com/01fN4lZz91
— azcentral (@azcentral) March 2, 2019
However, his statement said this wasn’t about the MAGA cltothing nor the flag.
Rep. Kelly Townsend, who is the state representative for Arizona LD 16, saw the video and shared a transcript on Facebook. She wrote: “What gets lost in the heat of the argument is the fact that they were requiring her to leave the campus because they had a Trump flag and they thought it was against etiquette and disrespectful according to their own words. That is not a legitimate reason to make a child leave the campus school grounds.”
Again, there is a credibility issue going on here. Especially since the school code does NOT restrict students from wearing clothing with political messages.
Feature Photo Credit: R. Nial Bradshaw via Flickr, cropped and modified
“if the school was genuinely concerned for the safety of the students wearing MAGA gear…”
Then the school administrators should have made it abundantly clear to the leftist retard mobs that if they attack a MAGA wearing student, they will be arrested and expelled.
There, took care of that.
GWB says: administrators asked her what her name was
WTH are these people that they don’t know the names of their students?!?
As to what kind of disruption, he didn’t say.
Most likely because, if he did, he’d come off sounding like the ignoramus he truly is. Everyone would laugh at him, and he would lose his authoritay!
If there wasn’t; then the school administration has some explaining to do.
Even if there was, it’s still considered a “prior restraint” and un-Constitutional. If they had declared “no political wear, and no phrases that have been recently used specifically as political slogans” they might be on safe ground (so no one could celebrate with “I’m with her” either).
It sounds like they’re claiming a violation of flag code. That shouldn’t be a reason to leave campus. At worst, it should mean a confiscation of the inappropriate flag (with a return at the end of the school day) followed by a bit of education about the flag code and why it is considered (at least it used to be) inappropriate to adulterate the flag with slogans and such.
It sounds like the school administration did sumpin’ stoopid and then tried to recover and only made it worse. (Sort a like the old “I meant to do that!” recoveries.)
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