Willis

It's kind of strange to see my hometown in the news over such a non-issue. The little town I speak of is Morgan Hill, CA at a little school called Live Oak High School. A little personal history on the place:

I graduated from Live Oak High School in 1999. At the time, the school was housing roughly 3,000 students on a campus built for less than 2,000. A few years after I graduated, they built another high school across town which relieved some of that overcrowding however, I don't know what the population of the school is now but I'm pretty sure it's still overcrowded. I remember my 3 years there (yes, it was 3-year high school for population reasons) as ones filled with fun and their fair share of controversy.

I recall one year in the theater plaza, we had a gang fight. It was Mexicans versus a generally white group of students over (you guessed it) Cinco de Mayo. The school administration took very strong action at that point and a police presence was also apparent for weeks to follow. I also recall a bomb threat at the school where we were all evacuated for an hour or so while bomb sniffing dogs and police combed the school. The threat was determined to be false and we were allowed back into the classrooms. Our bags (every single one) had been rifled through.

This brings me to the recent events of 4 kids wearing American flag oriented clothing on this year's Cinco de Mayo. If the details are correct, most of these kids were Hispanic and were simply showing American Patriotism. As I also understand it, the school had a policy that no flags of any kind would be tolerated on campus on Cinco de Mayo.

What amazes me most is that such a non-issue has been turned into a racially charged one. I'm a war refugee (please refer to my previous posts). I love this country with every fiber of my being and I will proudly, without hesitation stand to protect her. I think anyone and everyone who is living in this country and uses her resources should fly the American flag and respect what it represents irrespective of national origins. The flag represents a nation that grants the opportunity for success through determination and work ethic. It promotes collaboration and free discourse. It drives the ingenuity that has allowed America to rise and continue to firmly exist as a powerhouse in economics, justice, and politics.

I mentioned earlier that during our bomb scare, our bags were all searched and placed on our desks when we returned. In our civics course later in the day, we discussed this. "Was this illegal search in violation of our Constitutional rights?" asked the teacher.

Many in the class responded in the affirmative; others in the negative. The teacher then went on to explain that a school during this time opened itself to what is called an "exigent circumstance." This says that "exigent circumstances arise when the law enforcement officers have reasonable grounds to believe that there is an immediate need to protect their lives, the lives of others, their property, or that of others, the search is not motivated by an intent to arrest and seize evidence, and there is some reasonable basis, to associate an emergency with the area or place to be searched such as this bomb scare." (United States v. Smith, 797 F.2d 836, 840 (10th Cir.1986))

In this case, it seems that the exigency rules also applied to not only the Fourth but the First Amendment. I'll probably get some flack but I think the administration was correct in their actions. I think policy was enforced the way any flag would have been dealt with on that day. Exigency circumstances existed to suspend the Freedom of Speech Amendment. The students were in violation of a policy and were given the option of compliance and refused. They were properly reprimanded. Had there been a riot or a fight like we had in my day, they probably would have been hanged for not responding as they did.

My consternation is with the politicos who have capitalized on this for their own gain. The parents of the kids who pro-actively contacted the media have given the tea party a reason to come down onto my sleepy little town with their right-wing rhetoric flung into my face as I drive down our downtown streets.

The Left is no better citing this as a race issue instead of what it was, poor judgment of some kids who had nothing better to do with their time than try to instigate trouble on a campus I have such fond memories of.

My only solace is that our memories are short term and as a dear adoptive grandmother of mine would say "this too shall pass." I look forward to having my sleepy little town back.