Grand Valley High School senior Naomi Peña Villasano wore a stole with the Mexican and American flags on it to her graduation ceremony on Saturday after the Garfield County School District No. 16 forbade it.
Villasano wore the stole despite a judge denying her request for a restraining order against the school district on May 26, which would have barred the school district from denying Villasano the ability to wear her custom stole.
District staff let Villasano participate in the ceremony, and there was no public admonition or penalty for breaking the school's policy.
When Villasano first walked onto the field, she wore an approved academic cord and stole that represented her good grades and commitment to community service, but she did not wear her custom stole, previously referred to by the school district as a “sash.”
(The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a “sash” as “a long strip of fabric worn over one shoulder or round the waist, especially as part of a uniform or insignia.” And it defines a “stole” as “a vestment consisting of a narrow strip of silk or linen, worn over the shoulders (be deacons over the left shoulder only) and hanging down to the knee or lower.”)
Midway through the ceremony, students had the chance to bring flowers to their families, and her mother, Ana Villasano, placed the stole over her daughter’s shoulders.
Villasano later walked across the stage wearing her custom stole underneath a sanctioned gold-colored stole, which reflected a graduation achievement, and received her diploma while a school administrator read her senior quote to the audience, “Always stand up for what you believe in.”
Villasano would not comment on whether she would seek further legal action on the matter.
Villasano filed a lawsuit against the school district on Wednesday, arguing that the district was violating her First and 14th amendment rights by refusing to allow her to wear the stole that represents her Mexican-American heritage.
Judge Nina Y. Wang denied a proposed restraining order against the school district on Friday, saying that wearing the stole at a school-sponsored event qualified as “school-sponsored speech,” and “any such expression is subject to the school district’s discretion and supervision.”
Jennifer Baugh, the superintendent of Garfield-16, could not be reached after Saturday’sceremony for comment.
However, she filed an affidavit in the lawsuit saying the district's stance “is grounded in several concerns, including its interest in avoiding opening doors to speech that could offend others during a solemn, important ceremony in many families’ lives.”
In an email to Villasano in April, Baugh said if the school district allowed Villasano to wear her stole, they would have to allow other students to wear stoles with images from other flags, such as the Confederate flag, which is considered offensive to many families.
In her legal effort to lift the school district’s ban on her stole, Villasano was represented by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Lawyers for the fund argued that the school’s policy is discriminatory because other students have been allowed to receive their diplomas in past years while wearing flags and other cultural regalia.
The attorneys referenced graduation ceremonies as recent as 2021 where a student wearing the Honduran flag over his shoulders received his diploma without issue.
In her affidavit, Baugh acknowledged that students have worn “sashes and sarapes” in the past at graduation, but said this was against the rules and the students put them on at the last minute before going on stage.
To avoid disrupting prior ceremonies, she added that no district staff members intervened, as was the case again with Villasano on Saturday.
Villasano was not alone, as at least three other students wore similar stoles or regalia representing their culture, in violation of the district’s policies.
Some students wore the stoles while receiving their diplomas while others put them on afterward, and one student pulled out a Mexican flag from beneath his robes after receiving his diploma and draped it over his shoulders.
The school district does, however, allow students to decorate their graduation caps however they want, and many students in the ceremony donned mortar boards with flowers, rainbows, flags, and other decorations.
Villasano’s attorneys said that the stole was special, and it’s this piece of regalia that represents her identity.
Editor's Note: The headline on this story was changed to provide clarity.
