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.”
He should claim that he thought it was the US National Anthem and that he was protesting the war in Iraq. The ACLU would dispatch a battalion of lawyers to defend him.
Maybe I'm missing something here but aren't they illegals or are we supposed to kiss their asses.
When you're in Mexico, you stand for their anthem out of respect and courtesy of their land. But in the U.S., no way.
If they tried to make me stand, I'd have unzipped and pee'd as well.
When in America, learn to be an American...
"...the scales of cultural diversity may have tilted out of balance."
Ya' think?
If the schools want to honor the patriotic symbols of Mexico (or any other nation) then let them get all their funding from Mexico and let the teachers get paid at the same level as Mexican teachers and in pesos, not dollars. Not a dime of U.S. tax payer money should go to such nonsense.
Hmmm. You're either Mexican or American. Can't be both. Can't serve two masters. The teachers/administrators are just wrong.
Oh Mexanada.
ping
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.
As opposed to the last time I went to a professional baseball game and a Mexican behind me in the stands spoke/screamed loudly on his cell phone during the Star Spangeled Banner to his buddies who were running late in the parking lot. He kept bitching about how loudly the 'cabrones' around him were during the song. Yes, I speak Spanish and recognized his accent.
How about celebrating AMERICAN culture, period?
Highly doubtful - however - standing up for what he believes is right (and takes the consequences) means he will become one good NCO or Officer one day.
If they love Mexico so much that they wish to fly their flag HERE and NOT OURS...then they need to go the hell back to Me-hi-co.
I like Mexican food though.
I disagree in one way I can think of. If you go to an NHL game with a Canadian team they will play the Canadian anthem. It is only proper to stand for it.
Other than that, I can not think of another time that it would even be proper to play another countries national anthem. Outside of the few and far between instances of the Olympics, World Cup, etc... being in America.
I would've decked him.
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