American Flag vs. Mexican Flag at Montebello High School in California

Emailed images show Hispanic students demonstrating against proposed immigration legislation by hoisting a Mexican flag above an upside-down American flag at Montebello High School in California.

Description: Emailed images
Circulating since: March 2006
Status: Images are authentic, taken in 2006

Email example contributed by K. Best, April 20, 2006:

This is one e-mail that you would hope wasn't true, but the pictures seem to tell it all. Very sad!!! You will not see this heart-stopping photo on the front page of the NY Times or on the lead story of the major news networks. American flag v. Mexican flag at CA. high school--disgusting public acts! FLAGS FLYING AT MONTEBELLO HIGH SCHOOL SAYS IT ALL.... THE USA IS IN DISTRESS AND MEXICO HAS TAKEN OVER! THE AMERICAN FLAG COMES SECOND! School Walk-Outs 03/28 : Student protest in Whittier. Area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. (Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo) The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High. Our laws state that NO Flag will fly higher than the US Flag, so why does an American school in the USA allow this??? How is this acceptable? These students are in America, not Mexico!!!!! If you want to stay here, America comes first, last ,and always otherwise go back and make it better where ever you came from but don't try to turn my country into yours by ILLEGALLY entering mine and then demanding all the benefits of a LEGAL citizen of our nation ..... NO funding from federal tax dollars for any student out of class that day or any other day for such subversive activities.......teacher led or not. Years ago, U.S. Senator from California, S.I. Hayakawa, suggested that English be made the official language of the USA. He was belittled for suggesting it. I predict this stunt will be the nail in the coffin of any guest-worker/amnesty plan on the table in Washington. The image of the American flag subsumed to another and turned upside down on American soil is already spreading on Internet forums and via e-mail. Pass this along to every American citizen in your address books and to every representative in the state and federal government. If you choose to remain uninvolved do not be amazed when you no longer have a nation to call your own nor anything you have worked for left since it will be "redistributed" to the activists while you are so peacefully staying out of the "fray". Check history, it is full of nations/empires that disappeared when its citizens no longer held their core beliefs and values. One person CAN make a difference. One plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one......... The battle for our secure borders and immigration laws that actually mean something, however, hasn't even begun. Like I said: Welcome to reconquista. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under!

The occasion was a protest involving approximately 1,000 Hispanic students who walked out of their classes in the El Rancho Unified and Whittier Union High School Districts and marched through the town of Pico Rivera to nearby Montebello High School, where they demonstrated against proposed federal legislation calling for harsher measures against illegal immigration. As these photos and others taken that day show, Mexican flags were common currency at the event. The standard waving got out of hand, however, when a small group of protesters hoisted the flag of Mexico up the school flagpole with the Stars and Stripes underneath it, upside-down.

District administrators say that despite appearances, few if any Montebello High School students participated in the demonstration. The campus was "on lockdown" for the duration of the protest, which means Montebello students were kept in their classrooms until the gathering dispersed.

A student from El Rancho High School was reportedly disciplined in connection with the flag-raising incident.

Sources and further reading:

The American Flag Comes Second
Michelle Malkin, 29 March 2006

Students from More than 20 Schools Continue Protests
KNBC-TV News, 28 March 2006

Teen Punished for U.S. Flag Flip
WorldNetDaily, 1 April 2006

High School Officials Clarify Misrepresentation of Montebello High School
School district press release, 29 March 2006

Principal Won't Lose Job Over Flag-Flipping
Whittier Daily News, 7 April 2006

Mexican Flag a Lightning Bolt During Protests
Associated Press, 9 April 2006

Last updated: 04/29/10

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