Judge Rules Garfield County School District 16 Can Bar Student from Wearing Sash with U.S. and Mexican Flags at Graduation Ceremony

A federal judge has ruled that Garfield County School District 16 can bar a high school student from wearing a sash with an image of the U.S. and Mexican flags during her upcoming graduation. Daisy Jasmin Estrada Borja, an 18 year old senior at Grand Valley High School in the town of Parachute, Colorado, filed a lawsuit against the school district after Principal Kelly McCormick denied her request to wear the sash.

Judge Nina Y. Wang wrote that wearing a sash during a graduation ceremony falls under school-sponsored speech, not the student’s private speech. Therefore, “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,” Wang wrote.

The ruling was over the student’s request for a temporary restraining order, which would have allowed her to wear the sash on Saturday for graduation because the case wouldn’t have resolved in time. The student argued that the sash was a way to express her pride in her dual heritage and that the school district’s decision was a violation of her First Amendment rights.

The school district argued that the sash was a distraction and that it would disrupt the solemnity of the ceremony. The judge agreed with the school district, noting that the school has the right to regulate the speech of its students in order to maintain an appropriate atmosphere during the ceremony.

The ruling has been met with mixed reactions from the community. While some have argued that the school district was within its rights to restrict the student’s speech, others have argued that the school district’s decision was an infringement on the student’s right to free expression. The case is ongoing and a final ruling is expected soon.