Photo:Getty Images
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A Colorado high school student won’t be able to wear her Mexican and American flag sash at graduation on Saturday, a judge ruled on Friday, according to several news outlets.
Naomi Peña Villasano sued her school district after they rejected her decision to wear the sash — which depicts the Mexican flag on one side and the American flag on the other, presenting her heritage.
While the court considered her claim, she filed for a temporary restraining order so that she would be able to wear the sash for her graduation ceremony, according to theAssociated Press.
“The district is discriminating against the expression of different cultural heritages,” said her attorney Kenneth Parreno, from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, at Friday’s hearing, per the AP.
However, the attorney representing the school district, Holly Ortiz, argued in court that allowing Villasano to wear the sash could open “the door to offensive material.”
Colorado District Judge Nina Y. Wang sided with the school district, according to the outlet. She reportedly noted in her decision that the graduation fell under school-sponsored speech, and thus “the School District is permitted to restrict that speech as it sees fit in the interest of the kind of graduation it would like to hold.”
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This isn’t the only conflict that has risen over graduation dress code this year. Last week, a transgender girl in Mississippi did not participate in her high school graduation after school officials told her that she had to wear boy’s clothes instead of a dress and heels under her graduation gown, according toThe Guardian.
source: people.com
