alt=Marjorie CortezA Colorado honor student pushed back after school district officials told her she could not wear a graduation stole that features American and Mexican flags during her high school commencement exercises.
Naomi Peña Villasano filed a federal lawsuit against her high school, the Garfield County School District and the district’s education leaders after she was told she could not wear the stole “because it could open the doors to other, possibly offensive, graduation gown decorations such as Nazi symbols or Confederate flags,” the Colorado Sun reported.
A federal judge heard arguments on Friday on a motion to enjoin the school district from prohibiting Peña Villasano from wearing the stole at the Grand Valley High School graduation ceremony on Saturday. In a ruling late Friday, the judge declined to grant a temporary restraining order, letting stand the school’s decision that Peña Villasano could not wear wear the stole to graduation.
Peña Villasano wore the stole under a yellow sash as she walked the graduation line on Saturday morning in Parachute, Colorado, which is about 200 miles west of Denver.
School officials did not stop her or another student who wore a similar stole. Peña Villasano even received a fist bump from the school principal prior to receiving her diploma from a teacher, although the principal greeted other graduating seniors in the same fashion, according to a video of the commencement on YouTube.
The school district’s policy is silent on stoles, although historically, sashes and cords generally associated with school-related activities and distinctions such as membership in the National Honor Society or class rank have been worn, court documents note.
“The school district’s policy, albeit unwritten, provides exceptions to that general association for upcoming military service and regalia that is part of a Native American or Pacific Islander tribe,” U.S. District Judge for Colorado Nina Wang wrote in her order.
Wang noted that the school district, according to a letter sent to graduating seniors, allowed graduating seniors to decorate their graduation caps to thank a parent, grandparent, teacher, friend; recognize the university they will attend; note their graduation year; branch of the military they have enlisted; or a flag of a country as recognized by the United Nations.
The school district will review its rules and traditions during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Post Independent.
In the midst of high school graduation season, how high schoolers adorn their graduation caps and gowns continues to be a flashpoint of controversy.
The Utah Legislature dealt with the issue earlier this year, unanimously passing SB103, which allows all public school students to wear items of religious or cultural significance as part of their graduation attire.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Karen Kwan, D-Murray, said the new law likely would have averted the dispute litigated in Colorado.
The Utah statute allows school districts and charter school boards to prohibit a student from wearing an item of adornment that is likely to cause “a substantial disruption of, or material interference with, the graduation ceremony,” according to the text of the bill.
Kwan said her intent was for school districts to rely on existing definitions of “substantial disruption” in their board policies or to develop new language.
“I know it’s a hard discussion but those discussions shouldn’t be had at the state level. It should be had by the local school district and the parents involved,” she said.
During committee debate on SB103, Kwan shared that she is a first-generation high school graduate so she understands why it means so much to families to celebrate their children’s accomplishments and their culture.
“Graduation is for the family, right? It is for the parents. It is for the siblings. It is so meaningful culturally. Why wouldn’t we want our students to feel proud of who they are and what they’ve accomplished?” said Kwan, who is a professor at Salt Lake Community College.
Mohammad Al-Seady, the son of an Iraqi freedom fighter who opposed Saddam Hussein’s regime at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, testified in support of SB103.
In 2022, he and his twin sister, Fatima, were seniors at Copper Hills High School in the Jordan School District.
“We just wanted to wear our flags as first generation Iraqi-American Muslims but we had to go through a lot of hoops, each one being bigger and scarier than the last. I don’t want any other senior in the state of Utah to have to protest and consider not walking at graduation instead of enjoying their senior year,” he said.
The Al-Seady twins were allowed to wear cultural regalia to graduation by a vote of the school board, Kwan said. The district’s current policy states “Graduates will be allowed to wear recognized items of religious or cultural significance in a dignified manner.”
Kwan’s legislation “makes it so that anyone can wear their cultural regalia in schools,” codifying it in state law, said Mohammad Al-Seady.
SB103 is “a common sense law,” Kwan said.
“I mean it passed unanimously here in a very red state. I have never had so much feedback on any bill.”
In 2022, Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, sponsored HB30, which permits qualifying students to wear tribal regalia during high school graduation ceremonies.
That bill passed unanimously in both legislative houses.