Yesterday, Todd Starnes published a new column in which he asserted that students at a Colorado high school had been banned from celebrating America:
Students and parents at a Colorado high school are outraged after administrators turned down their request for a spirit week day honoring America because it might offend non-Americans.
“They said they didn’t want to offend anyone from other countries or immigrants,” a 16-year-old member of the student council told me. “They just really did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”
The student council at Fort Collins High School had proposed having a day to celebrate the United States during next week’s Winter Spirit Week. The young people pitched “’Merica Monday” – and invited their classmates to dress in patriotic colors. Their proposal was promptly shot down by administrators.
As we noted last week, when it comes to anything written by Starnes, it is always wise to wait until the people being vilified in his column have had a chance to weigh in and explain their side of the story because it is usually quite different than the version presented by Starnes.
And his latest column was no exception, as the school district became the focus on protests today and was forced to issue a statement asserting that Starnes’ column “could not be further from the truth” and explaining that the suggested spirit day name was rejected because school officials felt the slag use of the word “‘Merica” was disrespectful:
We regret that the recent decision regarding My Country Monday was viewed as not patriotic. This could not be further from the truth. The original intent of Spirit Week at Fort Collins High School was to unify the student body.
When students first proposed Merica Monday, building administrators felt that it was against this unifying theme and disrespectful to our country. Merica is a slang term that is often used in a negative, stereotypical way to describe life in the United States. This is what led administrators to discuss alternatives with students.
We were surprised that our community interpreted these actions as anti-American. Fort Collins High School is a proud public school in America and supports many activities to celebrate this great nation. Due to this outpouring of sentiment and misinterpretation of intentions, school administrators have decided to rename the first day of Spirit Week America Day as opposed to Merica Day.
We look forward to enjoying the creativity and energy of FCHS students as they celebrate their patriotism next week.
This is just one more example of Starnes’ dedication to providing “the most accurate information possible”:
