On the one year anniversary of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, senior Gabriel Vincent Franco sat alone on the circle stage holding a Palestinian flag today in the quad during nutrition and lunch to bring awareness to the continuing conflict in the Middle East. At the beginning of lunch, Principal Charles Park directed Franco to put his flag away.
Franco self identifies as a student who is up-to-date with politics by first beginning to familiarize himself in the conflict back when it first began to be publicized by the media.
“I want to understand how the world works,” said Franco.
He is one of many students who uses independent journalists and social media for updates on the conflict and U.S.’s involvement. With the bulk of protests occurring last fall, colleges such as Emerson College and Vanderbilt are beginning to teach incoming students how to conduct themselves civilly during times of unrest such as protest in anticipation of more, according to American National Public Radio NPR.
The protests were once largely publicized enough to spark unrest, but eventually faded in exchange for more current news, and coverage of the protest and war decreased.
This, along with the date’s significance as the one year anniversary since the start of the conflict, is what prompted Franco to bring a Palestinian flag to school today and engage in a silent sit down on the circle stage. He has flown other flags in previous years, such as the pride flag last June to open a dialogue surrounding LGBTQ+ rights. Doing so was met with criticism from peers; however, this did not deter him from engaging in similar activities.
“I flew it that entire week … I got a lot of bad comments because of that,” said Franco.
Despite the previous response, Franco shared how he believes that his actions are necessary to promote dialogue. Although students may feel unable to influence a large global issue such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, efforts are still important to revive conversation.
“Talking about it, just understanding what’s going on can help… the little things really do count. ‘Cause if we don’t talk about it then that’s what they want. That’s what the Benjamin Netanyahu government (Prime Minister of Israel) wants people to not talk about so they can do whatever the hell they want,” said Franco.
Franco held his flag through the entirety of nutrition with no objection from students or faculty. At lunch, however, he was approached by Park, who asked him to follow him to the office where he was then told he was “not in trouble.”
“He said it’s good that I’m doing this… and then the reason he brought me over there was because he’s got certain rules he needs to follow from his bosses. I guess he said he wanted to create an environment at West Covina High School that’s like–I don’t know–I guess de-politicized. He said his concern was that if something were to happen involving this like, I don’t know, I guess if I were to like, get in a fight with some kids that would fall back on him…,” said Franco.
Although Franco disagreed with Park’s directive, he complied as he understood Park’s position as a principal.
“I understand that. I am a major in JROTC (Junior Reserves Officers Training Corps) so like, I’m responsible for cadets too… but I was still frustrated… I didn’t really like that he was trying to basically take my flag away,” continued Franco.
According to the WCUSD Student Handbook “Students are prohibited from making any expressions or disruptions or posting any material that are obscene, libelous, or slanderous. Students also are prohibited from making any expressions that so incites students as to create a clear and present danger of the commission of unlawful acts on school premises, the violation of school rules, or substantial distribution of the school’s orderly operation (Education Code 48907).”
Since none of Franco’s actions violated the above policy, he was in accordance with the district regarding students’ freedom of speech.
When asked for his statement regarding the situation, Park declined to comment.
