Posted on 10/06/2005 6:20:04 AM PDT by DogBarkTree
A recent Mexican Independence Day assembly at Larkin High may have taken cultural sensitivity one step too far, a Larkin parent said this week.
Robert Bedard said his son was reprimanded when he declined to stand for the Mexican National Anthem during a ceremony at the west Elgin school last month.
His 17-year-old son, a senior in the process of enlisting, feared honoring another nation’s anthem might jeopardize his military status. Sitting down cost him a trip to the office.
Bedard questioned this week whether the scales of cultural diversity may have tilted out of balance.
“I am concerned that the Mexican Americans have unfairly monopolized the teaching of cultural awareness at this school,” said Bedard, a lieutenant with the Elgin fire department. “At least that’s the perspective of a parent. I’d love to be corrected.”
School leaders sought to do just that.
Just as Latino students orchestrated an assembly for Mexican Independence Day, officials said, black students host an assembly commemorating black history month in February.
“If we were teaching one culture’s history over another, then we have an issue,” school board President Ken Kaczynski said Wednesday. “But I don’t think that’s the case.”
The history lesson followed a maelstrom of controversy last spring when a Larkin student wrote an essay lamenting the celebration of Mexican holidays in American schools.
The teen faulted Mexican students, saying they shouldn’t have lowered the American flag in favor of a Mexican flag on Sept. 16, 2004.
Larkin officials later said the American flag was raised again before class began. No students ever were found responsible.
“Of the ethnic groups at Larkin,” Principal Richard Webb said, “the Hispanic group is growing at the most increased rate and of that Hispanic group, the vast majority of students are Mexican-American.”
Of the 2,550 students enrolled at Larkin last year, 38.4æpercent were Latino. Nearly a quarter of students were new to English. Information for the current school year is not yet available.
Four years earlier, 20 percent of the school’s 2,029 students were Latino, according to the 2000 school report card. Some 10 percent of students spoke English as a second language.
As the school grows more diverse, cultural assemblies will follow, Bedard said. But they should take care to represent a range of cultures, including the homegrown one.
“If they have an assembly, I would be happy if they will not try to force students to honor patriotic elements of another culture unless they also honor our flag, our anthem as well,” Bedard said. “It’s just respect for both cultures.”
Screw the Mexican Flag BUMP!!
If they push to have the Mexican anthem played, there's nothing American about them. I include the school and it's administration with that statement.
No American should be punished in any way for not standing for the anthem of another nation being played in THIS country.
Geez!
I feel your pain...=).
No American should be punished in any way for not standing for the anthem of another nation being played in THIS country.
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Absolutely -- this PC crap has gone way too far. This IS AMERICAN, NOT FREAKIN MEXICO!!
Would a foreign national in our country, be expected to stand for our anthem?
I think courtesy should extend beyond national boundaries.
Huh? So what happens when you go to a hockey game and you stand while they play "O Canada."
Kinda sorta like a-hole.
You better believe it. Canada is a classic example of why this type of multi-cultural bullshit will eventually blow up in your face. The Froggies will never be satisfied, nor will they stop whinging, until all of Canada is parlay-vousing and they are fully in control of the levers of political power. Nip it in the bud now.
Absotively, posilutely! It is highly inappropriate to play a national anthem of another country expecting non-citizens to stand for the anthem unless it is out of respect for representatives of that country. Being as these kids are in the United States, they are hardly officially representing Mexico.
Reminds me of something that sticks in my craw. My office is next to a Mexican grocery store. Next to our private parking lot and behind the store is a forklift with an American flag tied to it as its roof. It doesn't look like a flag, it is a flag--tied at four corners, ragged, dirty, left outside in the junkie back area of this store lot.
My relations with the store are not good. I refuse to buy anything there since they had only Spanish-speaking employees and none even so much as tried to understand English. I speak a little Spanish but not enough to conduct business there. The store is located in Central California.
What would have happened had he booed?
No national anthem but the Star Spangled Banner should be played at our schools. If the school wanted to celebrate different cultures- Mexican, Austrian or Welsh or whatever fine. Have some different food, some music,discuss the countries' history, economics, etc. But learning about a country should not include putting it above the US.
Yes.
"...Bedard questioned this week whether the scales of cultural diversity may have tilted out of balance...."
That's a self-answering question.
"...There's absolutely no reason for an American in America to stand for another country's anthem, unless they are being paid to work in a diplomatic capacity...."
It's done before hockey and baseball games when the United States and Canadian anthems are played. Whether one stands during either is their choice. But, if the Mexican anthem was the only one played in this case, I have a real objection to it. This IS AMERICA and to have the anthem of the USA discarded in deference to multi-culturlaism(aka: PC), is wrong. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP! I applaud this student for holding his ground. He is someone that gets it.
I'll be in the minority here and dissend. It's absolutley disrespectful to sit down on another nation's national anthem It's akin to flag burning. Just think if this was the USA being honored in France and some dumb frog sat down on our anthem.
I bet you're saying this while eating Taco Bell and listening to salsa music.
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