OPS reverses decision: South student can wear feather on graduation cap to honor Native American ...
Source: Omaha World Herald
By Erin Duffy
An Omaha South High student will be allowed to wear a feather on her graduation cap at tonight's graduation ceremony, an Omaha Public Schools spokesman said.
Members of the local Native American community attended the OPS school board meeting Monday night to ask the district to reconsider South's refusal to let the student don an honorary eagle plume to honor her Sicangu Lakota heritage at graduation.
According to Nicole Tamayo, the student's older sister, South staff initially turned down her request to decorate her cap, saying no adornments or "bling" were allowed on graduation day.
The eagle plume symbolize hard work, achievement and Native American pride, speakers told the board.
FULL story at link. FULL title OPS reverses decision: South student can wear feather on graduation cap to honor Native American heritage
Original LBN story here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141097321
Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/education/native-americans-protest-south-high-s-refusal-to-let-student/article_1266ef66-fdc5-11e4-80a4-e3afc89ddc78.html
My family's First American history: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1888979
= new reply since forum marked as read
To those who said "you need to draw the line someplace" - 
Story and video link below. X post in GD and First Americans
Story: http://www.scrippsmedia.com/kmtv/news/South-High-graduate-soars-with-important-cultural-symbols-after-OPS-administrators-reverse-policy-decision---304365251.html
Video: http://kmtv.video.jrn.com/?ndn.trackingGroup=90837&ndn.siteSection=ndn&ndn.videoId=29105390&freewheel=90837&sitesection=ndn&vid=29105390
South High graduate soars with important cultural symbols after OPS administrators reverse policy decision
By Kelly Bartnick. CREATED May 19, 2015
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) – Lily Tamayo walked onto the stage at Mid-America Center Tuesday night to celebrate a milestone. The Omaha South High School teen was one of about 450 graduates sent out into the world before a packed house of parents, school board members and faculty and friends.
Tamayo walked in traditional Native American footwear. Beaded earrings fell just below the line of a scarlet red graduation cap that was also hand beaded with a plume attached to the top. She smiled as she accepted her diploma, family and friends cheered too. It was a happy moment—a stark contrast to a day earlier, when Tamayo’s friends and family pleaded for a policy exemption to allow the traditional ornaments on her cap.
“The arrows all represent me moving forward in my journey in life and becoming a woman and graduation,” Tamayo said about the beadwork lining two edges of the half-finished cap—A product of a family scramble after school administrators reversed their ban, allowing her to wear the traditional regalia.
South High administrators originally said the ornamentation was against school policy, classifying the artwork as “bling.” Her sister, friends, and community members fought back against the policy in front of school board members Monday night, detailing the eagle feather’s significance.
FULL story at link. After college she will return to the reservation to do social work!!!
