| Place a Classified | Subscribe today | July 10, 2009 |
|
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Flag charge dismissal sought
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - An attorney in south-central Idaho says he'll ask a judge next month to dismiss a flag mutilation charge filed against a former Minico High School teacher.
''This was clearly an act of free expression,'' Keith Roark told the South Idaho Press newspaper. ''A political opinion was being expressed. And everybody knows that. I think the school handled this very badly.'' Roark said the Idaho statute that bans flag desecration is ''clearly unconstitutional'' and the court has no place injecting itself into a racial controversy at the high school. Minidoka County Prosecutor Nikki Cannon charged Dan Luker last month in 5th District Court with one count of ''public mutilation of the flag'' under a law passed in 1981 by the Idaho Legislature. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Luker pleaded not guilty May 23. He has since resigned from his job as teacher of English as a second language. Authorities say Luker threw the U.S. flag on the floor in an administrator's office at the school and stomped on it, ripping the flag off its fastenings. The incident occurred after a student accused a gym teacher of throwing his Mexican flag in the garbage on May 5. Some students brought Mexican flags in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, which recognizes Mexico's victory over the French army in 1862.
Luker said he was responding to the Cinco de Mayo incident and what he called the indifference of the school administration to mistreatment of Latino students. If a judge decides to dismiss the case, ''then we could appeal that all the way up to the Supreme Court,'' said deputy prosecutor Melissa Aston.
Article RatingReader CommentsSubmit a CommentCommenting RulesWe encourage your feedback and dialog. All comments are subject to deletion by our Web staff.
|
|
Comment
Rate
Report a Comment
