Waving the peace flag

Principal bans flags, clothing after tension on immigrant issue

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 5, 2006 at midnight

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WESTMINSTER - The illegal-immigration debate in Congress keeps sparking racial tensions at metro Denver schools, and another principal has had enough of the flags, camouflage and bandanas that she says stoke the fire.

"An increasingly large number of students were showing their feelings on immigration by the clothes they wore, and that had turned into ugliness, racial slurs and hurt feelings," Myla Shepherd, principal of Shaw Heights Middle School, said Tuesday.

Some 25 students came to class last week in "anything camouflage they could find in their closets," to show support for U.S. troops in Iraq, she said. Meanwhile, some of the Hispanic students brought bandanas designed like the Mexican flag and had them hanging from their pockets.

Shepherd sent a letter home Friday, telling parents the clothes and flags were being banned for a while. A few parents gathered at the school to protest the ban but most students abided by the new rules Monday and Tuesday, she said.

Shepherd said the school, which is 46 percent Anglo and 41 percent Hispanic, has had very little racial tension until the past couple of weeks. Eight times a year, there are programs that celebrate the diversity of the student body.

The school's harmony has been disrupted by the fight in Congress and the huge rallies in Denver and other cities against the strictest of the anti-immigration bills, she said.

Daniel Wenger, whose stepdaughter attends Shaw Heights, wants Shepherd out, saying "kids have the constitutional right to wear whatever they want to school."

Wenger said he served three years in the Army, and his grandfather, uncles and great uncles did the same.

"I don't appreciate it, and they wouldn't appreciate it," he said of the banning of the flag insignia.

Eric Golgart said his daughter, Kirsten, was called a racist and a "redneck" this week, after the ban was enacted, so he doesn't think the ban did much good. "Absolutely, you should be able to wear American pride and show patriotism," Golgart said.

Golgart does, however, see a limit to freedom of expression. "I don't care if you're Hispanic, Caucasian, Vietnamese, Chinese, you don't have any right to wave a flag to incite a riot, because you're not representing your country the way your country is meant to be represented," he said.

Last week, the principal of Skyline High School in Longmont temporarily banned the carrying of Mexican and U.S. flags, saying they were being used to harass and intimidate people of the opposite camp. Skyline High is on spring break this week, but Principal Tom Stumpf said there will be an effort to try to defuse tensions when classes resume.Like Skyline High, Shaw Heights continues to fly the U.S. flag on the flagpole and to display it in every classroom, Shepherd said.

"We say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning," she added. "Our student handbook has an American flag on its cover."

Teachers at Shaw Heights try to balance respect for diversity with respect for American values and democracy, Shepherd said.

Social studies teachers have incorporated the current controversy into their units on immigration and Central America.

Shaw Heights students know the score, by and large, Shepherd said. "We haven't had to send hardly anyone home" to change clothes. When threatened with that, Shepherd said students respond, " 'Oh, I'll just put on my other shirt,' " or " 'I have a second pair of pants in my locker.' "

Shepherd said people should remember that the middle school students are at a volatile age.

She took from her office closet one of the Mexican-flag bandanas. "They'll sport it in their pockets to declare what side they're on, and then some knucklehead will say something rude about what side they're on, and then they say something back because they're 13."

After school Tuesday, a few students tossed in their views.

"It's America, if you want to support the troops, you should be able to wear camouflage or an American flag - or a Mexican flag, whatever," said Chris Harman, 14.

Ricky Cooper, 12, said he wore camouflage pants last week, and doesn't see the harm. "What does wearing clothes have to do with anything?" he asked.

Tommy Nguyen, 12, said he witnessed some disruptions. "People were wearing camouflage, and I saw some Mexican students get mad. People should be able to wear what they want, but not in a racist way."

Rumors and facts

Flag issues at two metro Denver public schools:

• Rumor: The U.S. flag was taken down from the flagpole.

Fact: The flag continues to fly on the flagpole at all public schools.

• Rumor: Carrying of U.S. flags, or wearing replicas of the flag was banned, but the Mexican flag is still allowed.

Fact: Schools that have imposed bans have applied them uniformly to the American flag and the Mexican flag.

• Rumor: The bans have resulted in numerous suspensions.

Fact: There have been virtually no suspensions for wearing or carrying flags because students have been cooperative when confronted.

• Rumor: Students are being sent home to change if they wear, say, blue jeans, a white shirt and a red sweater.

Fact: Such normal color combinations aren't part of the bans.

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2897

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