A Colorado high-school senior is suing her school district for refusing to allow her to wear a sash featuring the U.S. flag and Mexican flag during her graduation.
According to a lawsuit, the district’s ruling violates Naomi Villasano’s constitutionally protected free speech right, as alleged by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a Latino civil rights organization and Greenberg Traurig LLP.
According to the lawsuit filed by Garfield County School district 16, Grand Valley High school principal Kelly McCormick told Villasano who is 18 that she could not wear the sash, despite the fact that the school in Parachute did not have a written policy regarding regalia worn over or on top of the graduation gown.
Garfield County Superintendent Jennifer Baugh responded by writing to Villasano, “The district did not permit flags on regalia as it didn’t wish to allow a student to wear a Confederate Flag pin or flag which would cause offense,” according to the lawsuit.
Villasano is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She told the school board that she was “a 200 percenter – 100% American and 100% Mexican.” In a MALDEF press release, Villasano stated, “It’s important to me to represent my cultural heritage, not just for myself, but also for my family.”
The lawsuit alleges that she has been denied her right to freedom of speech, and asks the defendants to allow her to wear the sash on her Saturday graduation.
Thomas Saenz is the MALDEF President and General Counsel. He said, “We are living in a time of increased threats to First Amendment rights in public schools.” “Here, district officials have wrongly concluded it’s okay to discriminate and honor the heritage of certain students while discriminating against other students. Our Constitution does not allow such obvious discrimination.”
In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the district superintendent, members of the school board and the principal of Grand Valley High School are named as defendants.
In response to an email sent by NBC News Superintendent Baugh issued a statement that read: “At the moment, the District has no comment on the pending lawsuit.”
Villasano, according to a statement, said that she is fighting the ban to make a difference, “not only for Latinos but for all future graduate students so that no one else has to experience what I have gone through.”
In a press release, Kenneth Parreno a staff lawyer at MALDEF said, “A graduation should be a time of celebration. But Garfield County school district 16 denies Naomi the chance to celebrate her Mexican American roots during one of the biggest moments in her life.” The United States Constitution, as well as Colorado law, protects the rights of students who wish to express their cultural heritage. Schools cannot choose which types of heritage they want to celebrate.
