A high school student in North Carolina was denied his diploma during the graduation rites because he wore a Mexian flag over his gown. On Thursday night at the Asheboro High School graduation ceremony, Ever Lopez walked off the stage without receiving his diploma and had his family escorted off the school property.
In a livestream video footage of the ceremony, school principal Dr. Penny Crooks was captured asking Lopez to remove the flag he had draped over his gown. He was handed the diploma holder however, after walking across the stage, he was not given the actual diploma.
My Twitter people make this go viral. Principle “Mrs. Penny Crooks” denied my cousin his diploma for causing a “disturbance” to the graduation ceremony. pic.twitter.com/7HfKzNGdJ3
— ♔ Adolfo Hurtado ♕ (@dolfoohurtado) June 4, 2021
After the graduation ceremony, Asheboro Police told ABC News that officers were on an "approved off-duty capacity” when they escorted Lopez and his family off the school property under the instruction of the school principal.
The incident has sparked much outrage and amassed lot of support for Lopez bringing together a protest held outside the school. The backlash has also resulted in a school employee receiving death threats sent via emails if Lopez was not given his diploma.
Authorities are looking into a total of 10 emails containing threats of violence against the employee and the school. "I’m gonna shoot up this school if you don’t give that young man his diploma,” one of the emails stated.
Despite the heavy criticism and the threats, the school district insists that Lopez’s actions “violated the ceremony dress code” and “the incident is not about the Mexican flag.”
Asheboro City schools said in a statement that the students had been informed of the graduation dress code ahead of time. They were allowed to decorate their graduation caps, but "the wearing of a flag of any kind is a violation of the dress code."
However, the Lopez said no one ever discussed that wearing a flag would not be permitted.
According to The Dispatch, a press conference was opened by the executive director of Siemba NC, Kelly Morales, where she said that Lopez did not realize he was breaking the dress code when he draped the flag over his gown before he went up the podium.
During an interview with ABC News, Lopez said: "When I got up there I went for the handshake and I wasn't thinking nothing of it and I heard her say, ‘You can't wear that.' And I was in shock and confused.” He said he wore the flag to honor his family as he is the first to graduate from high school within his immediate kin.
"My parents, my whole family, is from over there. I did it for them because they had a rough childhood; they didn't get the scholarship that I got, or they didn't get to go to school like I did." Lopez said that Asheboro high school asked him to apologize as a condition of receiving his diploma but the school has denied this.
The petition for Lopez to receive his diploma received more than 101,000 signatures as of 1:40 p.m. Monday. Lopez received the diploma on Monday during a meeting between his family and the school's principal. After receiving the diploma, the student’s mother held up her son’s diploma in front of a crowd of journalists and supporters waiting outside of the school.
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