Really? A school sent kids home for wearing American flags?

One of my conservative critics e-mailed to ask why I was not indignant about the decision of administrators at Live Oak High School in California to send five students home for refusing to take off their American flag bandannas and T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo — May 5. The school is part of the Morgan Hill Unified School District in Southern Santa Clara County.

To be honest, I had missed the story, but I checked it out, and it’s true. After they refused to take off the bandanas and turn the flag shirts inside out, the administration sent the students home for the day.

OK, I’m indignant. It’s outrageous.

The administration’s justification is that the five “offenders” were trying to be provocative, using some in-your-face patriotism that might offend Mexican-American students on a Mexican celebratory day — the day Mexican soldiers scored an important victory in 1862 during the fight for independence.

“It’s important to understand that this was never about whether students were allowed to wear patriotic clothing on our campuses. They can. It was about ensuring that our high school campus was orderly and safe,” said district Superintendent Wesley Smith at a May 7 news conference, held after the decision generated much negative publicity for the school.

Where to begin?

Live Oak High has some serious issues if wearing an American flag T-shirt is grounds for student confrontations any day of the year. I mean, we’re not talking about a Swastika or the Confederate flag here. Of course, there has been no evidence that a confrontation was going to happen — outside of the imaginings of administrators.

Even if wearing an American flag, or a flag of any nation for that matter, on a shirt might cause a confrontation, it does not trump the First Amendment right to do so.

Didn’t anyone think about how this would play out — no one anticipated bad publicity from sending students home for wearing the red, white and blue?

Supt. Smith said that, in retrospect, “it appears that a decision was made too quickly.”

You think?

“Freedom of expression is a sacred American value,” said Smith. “The point of the lesson learned here for all of us is that not only should we celebrate freedom of expression, but we should go about that thoughtfully and fairly.”

No, the lesson is your principal showed bad judgment.

That principal, by the way, issued a non-apology apology.

“It is always difficult to decide when preventative steps should be taken to preempt a conflict. In this situation I may have moved too quickly in drawing the line of when to take preventative action,” wrote Nicholas L. Boden “I would like to publically apologize to all of our families for the obvious disruption this caused to our students, staff, and school.”

Notice Boden apologized for the hassle he caused, not for sending kids home for wearing shirts with American flags on them.

To check out the Live Oak High website go here. Head to this site for good local news coverage of the issue.