A group of high school students in Apache Junction, Arizona, were arrested for wearing bandannas and violating the school's dress code.
Four Apache Junction High School students were arrested on August 10 for not removing their bandannas after a school administrator instructed them to do so. According to the Arizona Republic, the school claims the bandannas violated the dress code policy; however, it does not explicitly say bandannas are not allowed.
One of the students arrested was Valentino Jimenez. His violent arrest was caught on video and viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
He told local news outlet 3TV/CBS 5 he wore a blue bandanna almost every day before the incident. The senior said he was singled out because officials did not approach another student with an American flag-themed bandanna.
"She told me, 'if you don't take it off, I will call the police and have you arrested,'" Jimenez said. "I was like, 'well if the first thing you think of is to call the police then you might as well just do that because it must be that urgent for you to call the police, I must be making such a big scene that you need to call the police so go ahead,' and then I walked away from her."
A school resource officer was called to speak with Jimenez who refused to remove his bandanna. Students near the incident recorded video of the interaction between the student and officer while teachers instructed them to return to class. Jimenez pleaded his case for keeping on the garment, but the officer refused to hear him.
"The officer came up to me and wanted to have a talk with me, he asked me about the bandana, and I said, 'what's wrong with it?' He said, 'the color.' I said, 'what do you mean? That kid's wearing a bandana.' He says, 'that's the American flag.' I said, 'what's the difference?' She told me we can't wear bandanas at all," Jimenez recalled.
Two more police officers entered the fray in an attempt to escort the student off of the campus. Apache Junction High Principal Angela Chomokos emailed students' parents after video of the incident circulated on social media.
"The refusal to respond to a reasonable request escalated to a point where some students were confusing the wearing of the bandanna with defiance and disorderly behavior," she said.
For the students arrested, they are all being referred to the Pinal County Juvenile Courts.
The threat of possible trouble isn't enough to make Jimenez regret standing up for himself.
"I could've took [sic] off the bandana, I really could've. But at the end of the day, they tried to tell me I couldn't be me, knowing damn well I wear that bandana all the time," Jimenez said. "It was kind of humiliating if you think about it, in front of everybody, me getting arrested, and they try to make it look like I did something so bad, you know?"
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