A Hispanic student from North Carolina says his high school is refusing to give him his diploma for wearing a Mexican flag on his back during his graduation ceremony.
Ever López, the son of immigrants and a student of excellence, wanted to honor his parents and his roots at his graduation in Asheboro by carrying the Mexican flag during the event. Everything was apparently going smoothly until it was his turn to receive the diploma.
“He tells me that I cannot use it and that it is against the rule,” said López, who believes that the incident “is a bit of racism because if it had been another flag like the one here, it would probably have been something different”.
López received a symbolic envelope at the ceremony, but when he tried to find the official diploma, he was denied it, says this family.
“When this woman stops him and says ‘take off the flag or I’m not going to give you your diploma,’ I felt like my world ended,” said Margarita López, Ever’s mother.
“She wants Ever to apologize to her so she can give her the diploma because she says that what Ever did was like a mockery that she made to America,” added the mother.
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Regarding the incident, Asheboro High School explained the “dress code for graduation is shared in advance with students and the use of a flag of any kind is a violation of the code.”
Ever López was not the only student to wear accessories with Mexican references during the graduation ceremony, but the others did receive their diploma.
The school argues that the other students’ items were an “acceptable deviation from the established code”.
The school says it is working to resolve the matter with the student and his family, but Ever assures that he will not apologize. “I did not do anything wrong,” he says.
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