一名北卡罗莱纳州的高中生因在毕业礼服上佩戴墨西哥国旗而被剥夺了文凭。
周四晚上，洛佩兹在阿什博罗高中的毕业典礼上，将墨西哥国旗披在他的蓝色长袍上。
仪式现场直播的视频片段显示，校长要求他摘下国旗。在一次不成功的尝试后，他被递给了他的文凭持有者，其他学生也收到了。但走过舞台后，他被剥夺了真正的文凭。
洛佩兹告诉美国广播公司新闻，“当我站起来的时候，我去和她握手，我没有多想，我听到她说，‘你不能穿那个。’而我当时是震惊和迷茫的。我说，“什么?”她说，“国旗。你不能穿那个。"
这一事件引发了愤怒，并导致周五在学校外的抗议。然而，学区坚持认为洛佩兹的行为“违反了仪式的着装规定”，“这一事件与墨西哥国旗无关”
乌尔塔多
在毕业典礼上，一名学生在毕业礼服上挂着墨西哥国旗
洛佩兹说，他佩戴这面旗帜是为了纪念他的家人，因为他是直系亲属中第一个高中毕业的人。
“它对我来说意味着一切，”洛佩兹在接受美国广播公司采访时谈到佩戴墨西哥国旗时说。“我父母，我全家，都是那边的。我这么做是因为他们童年坎坷;他们没有得到我得到的奖学金，或者他们没有像我一样上学。因此...代表我的国旗和获得文凭对我来说非常重要，因为我基本上是为了我的家人。”
洛佩兹说，学校要求他道歉，作为获得文凭的条件。
“我不知道为什么我应该道歉，当它应该被听到的时候，因为我没有做错什么，”洛佩兹说。
乌尔塔多
毕业典礼上，一名学生在毕业礼服上挂着墨西哥国旗，走在街上
随后，阿什博罗警方告诉美国广播公司新闻，“在校长(佩妮)克鲁克斯提出要求后”，洛佩兹的家人被护送出了学校。阿什博罗的警官正在“以批准的下班身份”为毕业典礼工作。
洛佩兹还没有拿到毕业证书。
阿什博罗市的学校在一份声明中说，毕业着装规范提前与学生共享，允许学生装饰他们的毕业帽，但“佩戴任何形式的旗帜都违反了着装规范。”在毕业典礼的直播画面中，可以看到许多学生的帽子都做了改动，上面有手写的信息、图画或鲜花。
学区星期五说在一份声明中它支持“我们的学生在适当的时间和地点表达他们的遗产。"
“我们继续努力与学生和他的家人解决这个问题，这样他就可以获得阿什博罗高中的文凭。他工作非常努力，我们赞扬他取得的这一伟大成就。我们对他的能力充满信心，我们知道他有一个光明的未来，”声明补充说。
乌尔塔多
在毕业典礼上，一名学生在毕业礼服上挂着墨西哥国旗
作为后续声明学区表示:“这一事件与墨西哥国旗无关。学生们被鼓励通过装饰他们的灰泥板来表达他们的身份。许多学生遵守了礼仪，并在仪式上适当展示了墨西哥国旗和其他标志。”
洛佩兹告诉美国广播公司新闻，没有人讨论过不允许带国旗。
周五，大约30人聚集在高中外面，表示对洛佩兹的支持，要求他接受文凭。截至周六下午，一份在线请愿书也已获得超过73，000人的签名。
“嗯，太疯狂了。我没想到，所有的社区都这样团结起来，”洛佩兹谈到支持时说。“我刚刚走出学校。我有点沮丧。我当时就想，‘该死的，我没拿到文凭什么的。’...这太疯狂了，因为第二天我醒来时，有人打电话给我，说，‘哦，伙计，你得到了面试，你得到了面试，你得到了面试。’我就想，‘什么?除了采访之外，最让我震惊的是我学校的抗议，因为我不知道这件事。"
North Carolina student denied diploma after wearing Mexican flag over graduation gown
A North Carolina high school student was denied his diploma for wearing a Mexican flag over his graduation gown.
Ever Lopez draped a Mexican flag over his blue gown at Asheboro High School's graduation ceremony Thursday night.
Livestreamed video footage from the ceremony shows the principal ask him to take the flag off. After an unsuccessful attempt to take it off, he was handed his diploma holder, which the other students also received. But after walking across the stage, he was denied his actual diploma.
Lopez told ABC News, "When I got up there I went for the handshake and I wasn't thinking nothing of it and I heard her say, 'You can't wear that.' And I was in shock and confused. I was like, 'What?' She was like, 'The flag. You can't wear that.'"
The incident has sparked outrage and led to a protest outside the school Friday. However, the school district insists that Lopez's actions "violated the ceremony's dress code" and "the incident is not about the Mexican flag."
Lopez said he wore the flag to honor his family as he's the first to graduate from high school in his immediate family.
"It means everything to me," Lopez told ABC News of wearing the Mexican flag. "My parents, my whole family, is from over there. I did it for them because they had a rough childhood; they didn't get the scholarship that I got, or they didn't get to go to school like I did. So ... representing my flag and getting a diploma was really important to me because I was basically doing it for my family."
Lopez said the school asked him to apologize as a condition of receiving his diploma.
"I don't know why I should apologize, when it should be heard, because I did nothing wrong," Lopez said.
Afterward, Lopez's family was escorted off the school property "after a request was made by Principal [Penny] Crooks," Asheboro police told ABC News. Asheboro police officers were working the graduation in "an approved off-duty capacity."
Lopez has still yet to receive his diploma.
Asheboro City schools said in a statement that the graduation dress code was shared with students ahead of time and allowed for students to decorate their graduation caps, but "the wearing of a flag of any kind is a violation of the dress code." In livestream footage of the graduation a number of students are seen with alterations to their caps, featuring handwritten messages, drawings or flowers.
The school district said Fridayin a statementthat it supports "our students' expressions of their heritage in the appropriate time and place."
"We continue working to resolve this issue with the student and his family so that he will receive his diploma from Asheboro High School. He has worked very hard and we commend him on this great achievement. We are confident in his abilities and we know he has a bright future ahead of him," the statement added.
In a follow-upstatementthe school district said: "This incident is not about the Mexican flag. Students were encouraged to express their identity by decorating their mortar boards. A number of students followed the protocol and had the Mexican flag and other representations appropriately displayed during the ceremony."
Lopez told ABC News no one ever discussed that bringing a flag wouldn't be permitted.
On Friday, a group of around 30 people gathered outside the high school to show support for Lopez, demanding he receive his diploma. An online petition has also garnered more than 73,000 signatures as of Saturday afternoon.
"Well, it's crazy. I didn't expect it, all the community to come together like that," Lopez said of the support. "I was just walked out of school. I was kind of like down. I was like, 'Dang man I didn't get my diploma and stuff.' ... It is crazy because the next day I woke up and I had people calling me, saying, 'Oh man, you got interviews, you got interviews, you got interviews.' And I'm like, 'What?' And then what shocked me the most, other than the interviews, was the protest at my school because I didn't know about that."
