Education

High School Student Says He Was Suspended For Wearing ‘ICE’ Hat

(Photo by Bryan Cox/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images)

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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A California high school student is alleging he was suspended and prohibited from attending his graduation for wearing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hat.

He told the story to Young America’s Foundation, who reached out to the school, Bellarmine College Preparatory High School in San Jose, but could not corroborate Jacob Labosky’s retelling of events. The school has not released a public statement on Labosky’s accusations.

He says the school took disciplinary actions against him, a half-Hispanic student, and sent the student home for wearing an ICE hat on Thursday and Friday, March 23 and 24. Students from the school’s Latino Student Union cornered him, called his hat “offensive,” and proceeded to curse him out while wearing shirts that read “Duck Trump” and “Deport Trump,” he told YAF.

One student allegedly took his hat on the same day and delivered it to Bellarmine’s Assistant Dean of Students, Patrick Talesfore. Labosky says the assistant dean pulled him out of class and called him “racist,” “ignorant,” “gutless,” and an “idiot” in front of fellow students. Then, he says the dean accused him of “trying to incite fear in these kids,” and sent him home “for others to recover and for his own safety.

“Hat triggers snowflakes,” Labosky wrote on Snapchat after the alleged incident. “Sent home, not suspended to let them recover and to ‘protect’ me. Support the agencies that keep us safe and protect our freedoms i.e. not just ICE.”

When the Bellarmine administration learned about his post, Labosky said the school tried to expel him, a sanction which the student and his mother appealed and had reduced to a suspension. He says a member of the Bellarmine community inaccurately told the University of Portland, where Labosky is set to attend next year, that he had been expelled from his high school.

Finally, Labosky says Bellarmine demanded he apologize to the university in a letter and tell the institution how he is working to make amends.

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