Georgraphy Teacher and Flags in Classroom

Parent Cafe
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<p>Teacher showing foreign flags put on leave
Jeffco leaders say the state bans the banners, even in geography class, when they are not part of the lesson.
By Karen Rouse
Denver Post Staff Writer
Eric Hamlin, suspended for refusing to remove foreign flags from his world geography class, notes that a U.S. flag is permanently on display. (Post / John Leyba) </p>

<p>A seventh-grade geography teacher who refused to remove Chinese, Mexican and United Nations flags from his classroom was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday by Jefferson County officials who were concerned that the display violates the law.</p>

<p>District officials said state law forbids the display of foreign flags unless they are temporary and related to the curriculum.</p>

<p>Carmody Middle School principal John Schalk looked at the curriculum for Eric Hamlin’s world geography class “and there was nothing … related to any of these countries,” said Lynn Setzer, district spokeswoman.</p>

<p>She said Schalk asked the teacher three times to remove the flags and warned there would be consequences, but Hamlin refused.</p>

<p>Hamlin, in his first year at Carmody, said he regularly displays flags from different countries, rotating them out based on countries being studied.</p>

<p>He said that the first six weeks of school are devoted to discussing the “fundamentals of geography” and that the flags were randomly selected.</p>

<p>District officials are citing Colorado Revised Statute 18-11- 205. It says: “Any person who displays any flag other than the flag of the United States of America or the state of Colorado or any of its subdivisions, agencies or institutions upon any state, county, municipal or other public building or adjacent grounds within this state commits a class 1 petty offense.”</p>

<p>It says an exception to that law is “the display of any flag … that is part of a temporary display of any instructional or historical materials not permanently affixed or attached to any part of the buildings … .”</p>

<p>Mark Silverstein, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said he didn’t see how the statute applied to this situation.</p>

<p>District Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said the district has contact</p>

<p>OMGoodness…foriegn flags in a geography class…gosh@@@ whast a concept</p>

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<p>Your tax dollars at work…</p>

<p>I understand that if you look at some other country’s flag long enough, you end up talking and thinking like a person from that country.</p>

<p>And no one wants that.</p>

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<p>Haha I bet those kids don’t even know what the capital of Mexico and China are.</p>

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<p>Surely the sight of those flags is an effort to undermine American history’s democratic efforts.</p>

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<p>I view this differently. I think the teacher missed an opportunity to seek change from within and add to experiences of his current and future classes, specifically, asking his elected officials to file an amendment or new law that corrects what is obviously a flawed piece of state legislation.</p>

<p>It’s actually quite easy to dial up an elected official’s office, make an appointment and go see him or her, or the chief of staff, or the constituent services representative. It seems like changing this law to make display of foreign flags acceptable in a geography class might be sort of a no-brainer.</p>

<p>He also put his principal in an impossible situation - she cannot enforce other laws and policies that other teachers may be violating unless she also enforces the flag law, stupid as it is. Of course, she should have seen the potential for legislative remedy as well, and provided guidance, so, I guess she missed an opportunity as well.</p>

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<p>latetoschool, I don’t believe the teacher put the principal in an impossible situation at all. If anything, the principal put the teacher in a bad situation by taking an extremely narrow and completely unnecessary reading of the statute. If the district officials talked to their lawyer first, and if they were following the lawyer’s advice, then I’m embarassed for my profession. </p>

<p>My own personal opinion is that the statute is unconstitutionally vague and is also an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. What is a “display”. For that matter, what does it mean to display a flag. Does this mean that a student can’t wear a shirt with another country’s flag on it, because that would be a display on public property? What about a brazil shirt worn during the World Cup? An Australian flag pin worn by an Australian foreign exchange student? </p>

<p>Anyway, even if the statute is constitutional, a common sense reading of the exception would allow the use. It’s a WORLD GEOGRAPHY class talking about the fundamentals of WORLD GEOGRAPHY. To take the position that the use of a random selection of flags does not fit within the exception allowing for temporary instructional or historical use is simply ludicrous.</p>

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<p>iloveagoodbrew: Albuquerque and uh… Hong Kong! Yeah, those sound like capitals.</p>

<p>Much ado over nothing, but it does remind me of the Flag Protection Act of 1968: interpreted to mean that it was illegal to wear a US Flag or clothing that looked like a flag. Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing a shirt that had some stars and had some red and white stripes on it. Now, every soldier and policeman wears a flag on the uniform.</p>

<p>Jean Hay
midcoast.com
(an excerpt from 1997):</p>

<p>*"I’m going to miss all those red, white and blue ties, shirts, hats, beach towels and bikinis that now liven up parades, political rallies, backyards and beaches.</p>

<p>Because, if we pass this flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, that stuff will disappear. After all, how many people do you know who will risk jail over an exuberant display of our nation’s symbol?</p>

<p>There is a way around this: a Bureau of Apparel and Fashion to dictate the placement of stars and stripes on clothing. Official government dress codes would tell us whether flags or portions thereof are legal, say, if sewn onto a sleeve or displayed above the nipples, but illegal if attached to anything below the waist, or what we should do with toddlers caught with stars and stripes on their diaper pants.</p>

<p>Not clear yet is what to do with illegal clothing we already own. Will mere possession be a crime, like drug paraphernalia, or would we have to actually wear the clothes to be picked up for desecration? Does this dispicable act have to be done in public for us to be found guilty? What if we wear a tattered, paint-splattered, but favorite red, white and blue sweatshirt to clean out the garage?</p>

<p>Don’t laugh. We’ve actually been down this road before. YIP founder Abbie Hoffman was arrested and went to trial in the 1960s for wearing a spiffy red, white and blue shirt much like one I saw on a golf pro the other day on CNN Sports. Hoffman beat the rap only because the prosecution could not prove that the shirt had started its life as a flag. Honest, this was a real case, with real prosecutors, taking up real court time, with the threat of a real prison sentence. You would think our courts and prisons weren’t overcrowded enough."*</p>

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<p>I remember reading about Abbie Hoffman and his flag shirt. Didn’t he wear it on a talk show once (Merv Griffin?) and they put one of those squiggly dots over it the whole time he was sitting there?</p>

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<p>Iderochi, I didn’t consider it from the context of legal interpretation of existing statute. I just jumped ahead to thinking existing statute appears to be bad, therefore, someone needs to go about getting it changed, and the teacher was my first choice, consider it’s his classroom on the front line. Obviously, interpreting the existing statute correctly, or in context of original intent of this and other existing statutes is a far easier, faster, more sensible solution. </p>

<p>I wonder if the principal interprets all the regs equally narrowly, or if this is an isolated, extreme interpretation. "Cause it’s not a good thing at all if one teacher’s actions receive liberal interpretation, and another in the same school gets excoriated for the slightest possible perceived infraction.</p>

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<p>One should only buy and display AMERICAN flags made in Communist countries with slave labor and sold in stores which have their international headquarters there, but not display THEIR flags. ;)</p>

<p><a href=“When even Old Glory is made in China - CSMonitor.com”>When even Old Glory is made in China - CSMonitor.com;

<p>I especially like the ones with 53 stars!</p>

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<p>Oh my. </p>

<p>That seems a little bit crazy to me.</p>

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<p>“flags made in Communist countries with slave labor” …thought only cigar puffing capitalists favored slave labor (learned it in high school;)). But this seems straight from the horse’s mouth.</p>

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<p>Hey, as long as you hang it out, that’s what matters.</p>

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<p>

What ever happened to Abbie Hoffman?</p>

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<p>Sometimes it really burns to live in Colorado… between Churchill, JonBenet, Columbine, the anti-gay rights amendment, and now this…</p>

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<p>katliamom - I was just cringing, hoping against all odds, for once we weren’t talking about a Texas school. Relief! :-)</p>

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<p>Funny, ldmom06!</p>