School investigating Mexican flag incident

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – An instructor at a south-central Idaho high school says he took a Mexican flag away from a student on Monday and put it in the garbage because he feared “white kids” in the physical education class might harm the student.

“I had to confiscate it so it wouldn’t escalate any problems in class,” instructor Clint Straatman said. “We’re worried about that stuff all the time. We always have kids saying stuff to each other, and we have a lot of fights between kids.”

The student, 16-year-old Froylan Camelo, and others brought Mexican flags to Minico High School in Rupert to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the recognition of Mexico’s victory over the French army in 1862.

Camelo said he was changing into gym clothes before the class when Straatman told him, “Give me the flag.”

“I said, ‘What’s the problem?’ ” Camelo said. “He said, ‘The problem is that we are in the United States and not in Mexico.’ He grabbed it from me. He threw the flag in the garbage can.”

Straatman denied saying those words. He said he took the flag from Camelo after Camelo had been waving it in the school gym. Straatman said he put the flag in the garbage because he had no other place to keep it.

Camelo said he has been contacted by the American Civil Liberties Union and is considering a lawsuit against Straatman.

“They’re making it sound like I grabbed the flag and slammed it into the garbage can, and that’s not true,” Straatman said.

He said that Camelo is an English as a Second Language student and that Camelo likely didn’t understand what he said.

Camelo said as many as seven students witnessed the incident. Straatman said he was the only adult in the gym with 85 students.

Scott Rogers, superintendent of the Minidoka County Joint School District, said an investigation has been started. He said he could not comment specifically about personnel decisions.

“We believe in nondiscriminatory practices and cultural sensitivity,” he said. “We train for that and talk about that. If there is a teacher making derogatory comments, we don’t approve of that. We also don’t approve of a student disrupting the classroom.”