This isn't about what Cinco De Mayo means, or what the American Flag Means in some transcultural perspective. It's about what these kids were using the American Flag for, in this particular context.
As people have pointed out, the school didn't take down their own American flags, so it's not about that.
This. Although, it would appear that my commentary on Gang-related clothing may have led some people astray, so let's get some things cleared up.
1) The colors of the flag have nothing to do with the color-related gang affiliations. The kids' wearing of the flag clothing wasn't inciting gang-related violence. I was just using it as an example of how clothing censuring is used by this school to avoid violence.
2) That being said, the context of this event must be remembered. This was May, 2010, less than a month earlier Arizona had passed its infamous immigration law, and anti-Mexican, xenophobic rhetoric was escalating. Morgan Hill is a town with a large Mexican minority (in the 40% range). The white population is upper-middle to upper class, fairly conservative, and the Mexican population is largely poor. Although the actions taken by the AP weren't necessarily strictly gang-driven, there is certainly a gang-presence in Live Oak, and violence is not unheard of. Fights happen fairly regularly at the school, and there had been some more large-scale gang violence going on at the time.
3) The AP has said in interviews that he was aware of threats of violence which were being made against the kids in question.
In this context I think that a) it is quite obvious that the intent of the kids was to offend. Although the American Flag, of itself, is not an offensive thing, wearing American flags at a time where a lot of xenophobic rhetoric and legislation is being hurled at Latino minorities
in this part of the country, I don't think you can very easily make a case that 5 kids just happened to show up in
overtly "Patriotic" clothing on a day which is celebrated
in this part of the country as a day of Mexican-American pride and heritage (seriously, this day is probably second only to Cesar Chávez Day in terms of Mexican pride holidays) cannot be written off as mere happenstance, and that this was an intentional act with the express intention of offending. And b) that in the light of recent violence, the escalating vitriol and racial tensions between Mexican and White Americans, particularly in the border states, and the fact that the Assistant Principal was aware of very real threats being made against the boys, that the environment in the school was becoming a very unsafe one (not just to the boys, but to the school at large), and even if not, the actions of those kids was proving a distraction to a healthy and focused learning environment.
And so, the AP took a very sober and unintrusive step to alleviate the situation, a step which the school takes on a fairly regular basis against all manner of kids. The AP wasn't suspending him, wasn't giving him detention, wasn't taking any punitive actions against the kids in any way. He was merely asking them to turn their shirts inside out or wear their gym shirts
for the rest of the day. This was a nonissue, and it was only when the parents decided to make a stink about it and call the local Tea Party arm and FOX News that this became headline news.
Frankly these parents and their kids are an absolute embarrassment to this town. It is shameful that this is what Morgan Hill is going to be known for.