It shouldn’t require a protest… but it did. It shouldn’t require school administrators to face scores of angry parents… but it did. In a school where students simply wanted to have a day in which they showed their pride in being an American, it took complaints, protests, and national news coverage in order to happen. All of this… right here in America.
The story begins at Fort Collins High School in Colorado. As part of “spirit week,” student organizers proposed “Merica Day,” a day in which students could express their pride and patriotism for America. As reported by Colordoan.com, the school administrators said no, no, no.
Parents and students expressed outrage on Facebook on Monday after administrators at Fort Collins High School nixed a student idea to host an upcoming spirit day called “Merica Day.”
The situation caught the attention of Fox News and has some community members saying the school should be “ashamed of their un-American PC censorship” of a day students intended to celebrate a country that’s home to people of diverse backgrounds and origins.
The story quotes high school senior Stephanie Livingston as saying that the decision was wrong “given that students celebrate the Mexican culture holiday Cinco de Mayo. She also believed prohibition of ‘Merica Monday’ was an affront to students and their family members who have served in the Armed Forces.”
Livingston and the other students and parents are right. We now live in a society that has gone crazy with political correctness. Someone, some where, at some time will be offended about something. We can’t help that. But to penalize the majority… to tell students in a school in America that they can’t show patriotism in the country IN WHICH THEY LIVE is crazy.
Rather than just sitting back and letting the PC police win, student and parents protested. Channel 7 News in Denver reports that because of the protests, the school will go ahead and have “America Day” as part of spirit week.
The principal of the school issued the following statement:
We regret that the recent decision regarding My Country Monday was viewed as not patriotic. This could not be further from the truth. The original intent of Spirit Week at Fort Collins High School was to unify the student body.
When students first proposed Merica Monday, building administrators felt that it was against this unifying theme and disrespectful to our country. Merica is a slang term that is often used in a negative, stereotypical way to describe life in the United States. This is what led administrators to discuss alternatives with students.
We were surprised that our community interpreted these actions as anti-American. Fort Collins High School is a proud public school in America and supports many activities to celebrate this great nation. Due to this outpouring of sentiment and misinterpretation of intentions, school administrators have decided to rename the first day of Spirit Week America Day as opposed to Merica Day.
We look forward to enjoying the creativity and energy of FCHS students as they celebrate their patriotism next week.
As Todd Starnes reports, “that’s not exactly how parents or students recall the events.”
They said they suggested “America Monday” but administrators rejected that idea. And members of the student council were adamant that the only reason the event was barred was to prevent non-Americans from being offended.
So, in this case it looks like common sense will win the day. But this happens all across the country, all the time. We can’t reference Christmas, we can’t sing Silent Night, we can’t display American Flags, we can’t show patriotism. This is America, folks! If anyone has a problem with celebrating American patriotism, don’t you think he or she is the one with the problem?
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