Idaho student says teacher threw Mexican flag in garbage
May 7th, 2008, 2:53 pm · 23 Comments · posted by Amy Taxin
An Idaho high school student said one of his teachers confiscated a Mexican flag he had brought to school to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and put it in the garbage, according to a story from the Associated Press.
Physical education teacher Clint Straatman said he took the flag from 16-year old Froylan Camelo to prevent any problems among students. Camelo said Straatman said he was taking the flag because we’re not Mexico.
The incident is under investigation by the Minidoka County Joint School District. Camelo said he may file a lawsuit.
What do you think? Was the teacher right to take the flag or did it violate the student’s rights?
May 7th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
#! the student was probably an illegal or born of illegal parents and yes we are not in Mexico, bringing a foreign flag to school is not ok, because of the fact that working americans have to pay for these idiot people to be here in the first place. He should have thrown the kid in the trash too!! just joking about the kid:}
May 7th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Good for him. Unfortunately, now he’ll probably have the ACLU, MALDEF, LULAC, et. al., sue him, and the district.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
What the teacher has done was right. Cinco de Mayo is not a American National Holiday Celebration. Mexico’s flag should stay at the student’s home. Imagine, if every student demands the same right and brings his or her own country flag in the classroom, it will create chaos for the teacher to handle. Mexico’s flag is not a study subject required by a teacher. I suggest that student can bring a lawsuit to Mexico where he can ask for justice.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
No….. its only ok to to disrespect the American flag in this country.We have watched them marching the streets dragging our flag and we have to call it free speech and freedom of exspression and the minute someone touches a Mexican flag they call the aclu. DISGUSTING we are headed for a revolution.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
In response to “hard working Americans are paying” Hard working Americans are not paying for anything. These people are working picking your fruit, cleaning your houses, and some are dying in Iraque for you!!!! If they are illegal they are paying taxes and S.S. money they they will never collect. Now For all of you xenophobic There are millions of AMERICANS OF MEXICAN DECENT VOTING AND WORKING AND DYING IN THIS WAR. WHY AREN’T YOU IN UNIFORM?
May 7th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
There was no disrespect intended at all. Is it disrespect to celebrate St Patrick’s day and put up the Irish flag, Is it disrespect to celebrate Oktoberfest and put up the German flag. This is all this American kid was doing.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:24 am
clotilde lange as to your questions of why i am not in uniform, i am an immigrant and was not able to go into the army and fight for american because i was not a citizen of this country!! i would have if i could have. YOu are not getting the point of why i think AMERICANS SHOULD BE PISSED OFF. Give me a break most i be if statisics were done illegals don’t pay taxes, and in seeing Mexican immigrants take and take from the American people has been to me as an immigrant myself frustrating. I came to this country not with my flag in hand and believe me not with the attitude that Mexicans have for the US. The Irish died for this country we built it and as far as i can see The Mexican immigrants that i am seeing here have an attitude that America owes them something. Irish immigrants, asian immigrants dont send their children to an american school speaking a different language just because they think its not their job to teach themselves or their kids English. Schools here suck because of the immigrant problem go check out santa ana schools we are spending 450,000 approx just to watch the evolution of more gang members. So get real and wise up!!
May 8th, 2008 at 12:53 am
I think the teacher should’ve kept the flag until school is over and then hand it back to the kid. She was right. This is not Mexico.
Now in response to clotilde lange: What in the heck are you talking about? We, legal citizens, are paying for the education, health care, prison services,… out of our tax money because your own country, Mexico, is so corrupt and can’t provide those services for its citizens. Sure, illegal aliens pay sales taxes but they don’t file income taxes. They get paid “off the books”, so their income doesn’t get deducted and go to Social Security. Remember, these illegal aliens get paid dirt slave wages. Who are you fooling with? You’re conning a con-man. Granted, there are many Mexican-Americans who do vote and serving in Iraq. But those are the ones who either came into this country LEGALLY or kids whose illegal alien parents were granted amnesty back in 1986. Why I’m not in uniform? The war is a bust. Another reason, freedom of choice, something that your country, Mexico, doesn’t have. I’m only against illegal immigration. If you think that’s racist, then explain why Latinos voted mostly for Hillary last February. Even after Barack Obama promised amnesty for the illegal alien Hispanics, your illegal alien buddies still didn’t vote for him. Why is that? Because he’s black? Because your country, Mexico, is 100 years behind in racial tolerance?
May 8th, 2008 at 4:18 am
Riverside and San Bernardino Counties are now heaven places for illegal immigrants, criminal illegal immigrants, and racist individual from Mexico as well as places for the greedy employers hiring them. We should have more citizens to speak out the true about problems of illegal immigrants regardless what country they came from. We are not racists, but human beings are all racists regardless skin colors.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:33 am
To Michelle: You can volunteer to serve. You are obviously not informed of that or you can become a citizen. I am an American. You are right about the gangs however we are not all in gangs. Read some history there were plenty of Irish gangs in New york.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:38 am
buy and watch the movie from http://www.bordermovie.com. you will be floored at what is going on. Contact your congressmen. We have had enough.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Sounds to me like Camelo is a typical “what America can do for ME” Mexican. Is he an illegal alien? Carmelo has a less than 50/50 chance of graduating high school, a statistical reality across this country. Without so much as a high school diploma he’s consigned to minimum wage and welfare (5 yr. max benefit) for the rest of his life. The life of whatever dame dumb enough to marry the dolt. Their passle of brats, 50%+ of whom won’t graduate high school either. So in other words, Carmelo, and 50% of Idaho’s Mexican population are and will forever be a drain on the American economy. Starting with the opportunity cost of the education he and his “what America can do for ME” attitude are pissing down the toilet. Enforcement of exisiting immigration and employment law, making permanent the E-Verify program, is overdue.
If there is ANY upside to this recession, we legal taxpaying citizens can hope the job losses will drive the illegal aliens back across the border — where - have you all read/heard the news reports? — the Mexican citizens are complaining to Mexico City that they’re swamping their towns and cities, rising crime, overstretching their resources, affecting the local economy — and THEY DON’T WANT THEM! WHAT a hoot! The illegal Mexicans in the U.S. are worth more to Calderon than if they were in their native country - the transfer money the send back to Mexico is its second only to oil exports.
In Northern ID that Mexican nitwit would have lost more than the flag of a country that disowns him.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I did serve. Farm labor makes up small percentage of jobs illegals take. Yeh, some may pay SS taxes, but how many don’t have income taxes withheld in the first place? It costs over 7 grand/yr for schooling, plus free school breakfast and lunch, WIC, and probably 10-14K to have a baby….after sending money back to Mexico, that doesn’t leave much to pay for services received here. Oh, before someone makes a comment that people are racist because they only talk about illegal Mexicans, it’s because they make up 60% of illegals and are the prime problem. They generally are also the ones that think they “deserve” the handouts.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I just heard a report stating that illegal Mexican immigrants are costing the U.S. 7 billion dollars and that’s just the hospitals. Yikes..
May 8th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
The teacher did nothing wrong. maybe the kid should not have brought the flag to school. If he loves mexico so much why is here on this side of the border. Tired of the double standards that are put on Americans. This our country and we do what we and how we want here. Dont like us move else where.
Semper FI!!!!!!!!
May 9th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Bravo this teacher should be given a raise this was the most american thing I’ve heard of in a long time. Thank You !!
May 9th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
This student brought a flag of Mexico into a P.E class to educate other students about Cinco de Mayo when the students should be running and participating in fitness activities! It seems ironic that the teacher should be punished for trying to keep his class on task. This is just another example of a Mexican failing to assimaliate. Americans do not need to be educated about Mexico, if we want that we can always visit the Mexican created ghettos in Los Angeles and other cities, large and small alike. We can also see it the people who can be here for decades and yet fail to learn English, and then have the audacity to complain that they are being denied the “American”Dream” when there claim to the American Dream are their non English speaking Anchor babies and Welefare. These people are anything but English speaking Americans.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I wish we had more teachers like this.
God bless this teacher and keep him in your prayers.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Undocumented illegals cost us 7 billion a year and you are upset? Then you must be outraged at the billion dollars a day and a total of trillions of dollars and growing that we continue to throw down that black hole in Iraq.
You all would be just as mad if that had been an American flag at a school in Mexico.
Play nice…
July 12th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
u guys are racist and nothing else, u guys talk about billions and trillions but its all hear say, u guys just follow the idiot that says all of this. Thats why u guys have bush in power sucking every penny out of u in the form of oil, ha-ha u looser morons, keep on going like that and there wont be any america left u loosers hahaha
July 12th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
anglo-america has traditionally been rascist thru its 200yr history and u r the reflection of it, its funny how your grandfathers where “pioneers” and mexicans are “inmigrants” f-you all anglo crybabies and dont worry, if we dont get u out, well breed u out!!
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August 13th, 2008 at 2:27 am
That teacher deserves a medal. A gold medal. Mexican flags belong in Mexico.