Proud to be Irish American but Outraged by Cultural Insensitivity in the High Desert

Yesterday was Saint Patrick’s Day. It is the day when the whole world celebrates that it is a little Irish and a lot green even in the hight desert of New Mexico. This was what I was taught for birth. It is my culture and that of my child. I sent her to school dressed in green with a headband that had shamrocks on springs. The shamrock is a symbol of the Celtic culture. I know that New Mexico does not have a large Irish American population but all cultural holidays should be shown the same amount of respect. I was very saddened and disappointed and a little outraged (OK a lot outraged) when my child came home and told me that a teacher at her school ordered her to take her headband off. Clearly this would not have happened if it had been a Native American student, a Hispanic student or an African American student. The teacher would have been fired for this type of behavior toward those cultures. Unfortunately we lack the population of Irish Americans in this city to make a big deal out of this type of cultural insensitivity. My Celtic tribe may be a small one in New Mexico but the culture is a very old and a very proud one. I think that the teacher should apologize to my daughter for her unfortunate behavior. Having and being proud of your own culture does not make you any the less an American.