Students at a Wyoming high school decided they had enough of political correctness and showed up at a cancelled America Pride Day dressed in red, white and blue.
The Jackson Hole News and Guide is reporting on the incident which took place last week during Homecoming Week at Jackson Hole High School. The school traditionally hosted an America Pride Day during the week but the school’s activity director, Mike Hansen, decided to cancel the event in deference to the large Latino population in the area because he wanted to be inclusive of those students who don’t feel American.
Instead, they replaced the theme for the day with “College Day” instead.
“Many different students could have felt singled out,” Hansen said. “Maybe they moved here last week. Maybe they moved here last month. We’re trying to balance many different things here. We’re trying to be inclusive and safe, make everyone feel welcome.”
The school’s principal, Scott Crisp, said that it was not the spirit of the theme, but that a student survey noted that it might have been the name itself that caused some students to feel excluded.
“Three times as many students indicated that they were not in support of selecting the title ‘America Day,’ ” Crisp said. “I’m charged with looking at a school with 660 kids, and I have to ensure that all those kids feel part of a student body. Regardless of the name of the day, we want to ensure that activities of the week … bring our students together holistically as a student body.”
But plenty of students voted for America Day which was the third most popular theme – and many of these students decided to show up on “College Day” draped in the color of the flag. They arrived with flags wrapped around their shoulders, wearing red-white-and-blue shorts and driving a diesel around the parking lot while waving American flags after school.
Seventeen-year-old senior Harry Burt believes replacing America Day with College Day was even more discriminatory.
“What if you can’t afford college? There’s a lot of kids here that can’t afford college. College is not an option for them. It’s more discriminatory.”
Parents were also outraged by the school’s decision and took to social media to show their support for the civilly disobedient students while disparaging the school’s “political correctness.”
“It’s homecoming week and our school administration thought it was too ‘offensive’ to have an America Pride Day! So this is my kids answer to that!” Ted Dawson said with a Facebook post of his kids adorned in patriotic colors. “Where have we gone so wrong! I don’t care what race or religion you are, you live here, benefit from the schools, enjoy tax benefits or whatever — your [sic] an American or at least you better be!”
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