Because, you see, there are only certain days when patriotism are acceptable at Live Oak High School. And Cinco de Mayo just isn’t one of those days. Wearing patriotic clothing on the Fifth of May will get you punished.

On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal’s office.

“They said we could wear it on any other day,” Daniel Galli said, “but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it’s supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today.”

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts “incendiary” that would lead to fights on campus.

If wearing a shirt with an American flag on it will result in fights on campus, something on your campus needs to change. That’s simply not normal. Via Michelle Malkin:

NBC quotes a fellow student:

“I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day,” Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. “We don’t deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn’t do that on Fourth of July.”

Disrespected? I’m confused. Aren’t all the students Americans? Who is being disrespected by the display of our shared national flag?

Precisely. These students and administrators want to control who can express themselves and how. As long as you honor Mexico you’re fine. Wear American patriotic clothing and you get in trouble. Because apparently the American flag disrespects Hispanic students.

Update: One of the students who wore the American flag clothing was Hispanic. So this wasn’t about protecting Hispanic students from being insulted but rather Hispanics who find more allegiance to Mexico than the United States.

Hence the “we wouldn’t do that on Fourth of July”, which is a holiday that is connected to country allegiance rather than racial heritage. Apparently she doesn’t celebrate the independence of her own country.