Denver Schools Clarify Policy After Outcry Over Mexican Flag
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Aug. 20, 2004
DENVER Criticism over a Mexican flag hung in a classroom
has led school officials to create a policy that says the display
of foreign banners must be temporary and related to what is being
taught in class.
Officials at North High School, where the student population is
84 percent Hispanic, said they received complaints over a
photograph in the Rocky Mountain News taken on Monday, the first
day of school.
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The photo showed a Mexican flag displayed in a classroom next to
a U.S. flag.
Andrew Fox, who teaches English to Spanish-speaking pupils,
said he wanted his Latino pupils to feel more welcome.
School superintendent Jerry Wartgow said some people complained
there should never be any non-U.S. flags displayed in the schools.
"It's a school, for God's sake," said Wartgow. "That's where
you study countries." Other people were upset that the American
flag was hung improperly, with the stars on the wrong side.
In response to the complaints, school principal Darlene LeDoux
removed the Mexican flag and another one displayed in the school's
lobby next to a poster of the Statue of Liberty.
The News reported Friday that the new guidelines were still being
written, but that they would protect the display of flags but
require any such display to be related to the curriculum.
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