Nearly every student in CUSD remembers the unusual incident that happened in the Spring of 2019 involving administration vs. students on a Make America Great Again controversy that made national headlines. Last school year, in celebration of spirit week on the day titled “Party in the USA” where students were meant to dress up in support of America, a group of students came wearing President Trump’s Make America Great Again attire and bearing Trump’s MAGA banner. At lunch, while it may have caused some students to feel uncomfortable, it did not stir anything more than that.

This changed after school hours when the group of students were asked to put away their MAGA banner after a verbal altercation. The students’ were asked to leave campus by officer Allen which they declined, officer Allen then proceeded to request their names and provide school identification which they also refused to do.

It is a school policy that all students must provide a valid identification if asked, refusing to do so is viable for punishment. Principal Dan Serrano took the appropriate action in disciplining the group of students; however, the entire issue blew up soon after with people going as far as to protest against the students’ being punished, arguing that the school was in violation of breaking the students’ first amendment rights.

The situation was then brought to the attorney general to be put under investigation. Though the situation has died out over the summer, the investigation continued throughout the next seven months. It was only a few months ago in late November on Thanksgiving week that Perry was officially cleared of any wrongdoing; however, the district made the decision to not publicly announce it making it so barely anyone became aware of the clearance.

Concerning this matter, Principal Serrano said, “we didn’t want to draw attention to the situation as it is just beginning to die down.” The MAGA controversy lasted months with some people still talking about it today. Furthermore, Principal Serrano also stated, “I still get some not-so-nice emails about it.” Bringing attention back to this matter is not productive to Perry nor the district as a whole, which is the overall reason as to why the decision to not publicly announce this matter was made. The attorney general has made no comment about this.