Tancredo needs to be removed from office

The principals of Westminster's Shaw Heights Middle School and Longmont's Skyline High have defended their actions as necessary to protect students, who were taunting one another with Mexican and American flags and related attire. But some parents, students and politicians said the principals took a wrong - and unpatriotic - approach.

"Telling kids, 'Oh, you can't wear a bandanna,' ... that's not going to do it," said Pam Martinez, co- director of Padres Unidos, a northwest Denver parent advocacy organization.

Rather, she said, the district and community leaders should have used the opportunity to teach "(through) leadership, through discussion, through modeling."

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a leading immigration-reform advocate, agreed. On Wednesday, he sent Shaw Heights principal Myla Shepherd a letter asking that she reverse the policy.

Tancredo also said he is considering reintroducing legislation that would prohibit agencies that receive federal dollars from discriminating against the American flag.

"If you've got problems inside your school with divisions in the school community, then each school is going to have to deal with that as best they can," he wrote.

Denver Post