California bill upholds students’ rights to wear Native regalia at graduations | Opinion

A recurring rite of spring are annual high school graduation ceremonies. But they regularly cause acrimony, consternation, disrespect and legal action when school districts deny or restrict Native Americans from wearing tribal regalia at graduations.

The American Civil Liberties Union reports that its two California affiliates receive annual complaints during graduation season about districts abridging students’ rights to add regalia or other tribal cultural or religious adornments to traditional caps and gowns at their ceremonies.

Such guarantees are well established in federal and state law, but that hasn’t stopped some districts from using bureaucratic obstacles as a pretext to deny this right to graduates and their families.

Some districts presume to deem themselves experts in determining what constitutes tribal cultural items. One very determined Clovis High School student, Bella Garcia, recounted to The Fresno Bee her more than year-long effort to wear regalia at her June graduation. Bella is an enrolled citizen of North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians. Her efforts recently paid off, and she was granted permission to wear regalia.

Yet district strictures against any personalization, such as phrases or a student’s graduation year, remain in place.

Garcia’s struggle is not unique; students’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression were settled in a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Tinker v. Des Moines, which famously declared that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse door.”

California approved a 2018 law letting students wear tribal regalia or objects of religious or cultural significance unless doing so would likely result in substantial disruption or interference. Despite that law, school officials continue thwarting these legitimate expressions of cultural pride and identity.

This year, I introduced Assembly Bill 1369, clarifying that students and their families determine what constitutes traditional regalia or recognized objects of religious or cultural meaning. It would also prohibit a pre-approval process for wearing adornments.

In 2021, the Legislature also approved my law, Assembly Bill 945, requiring that the California Department of Education meet with tribes and make recommendations on how to best implement current law.

Most present-day educators understand little about Native Americans’ history, culture or diversity. In elementary school, teachers asked my friends and I to explain Native American musical drums. We replied that we were not familiar with them because our tribe’s musical instruments were hooves and gourds. The teacher, a non-Native, replied, “You must not be Indian enough.”

Episodes such as this — as well as our broader history and disparate educational support — have contributed to Native American graduation rates that are lower than those of other students. Receiving a diploma reflects tremendous personal achievement and resilience for students, as well as their families and communities. Beading a cap is an hours-long, meticulous labor of love and artistry transformed into an object of pride and affirmation of cultural sustenance. Eagle feathers have religious meaning and are worn to honor and invoke the belief systems they symbolize and the youth’s journey through life.

Let students and families celebrate these milestone this spring without challenges and obstructions.

This story was originally published May 23, 2025 at 9:57 AM.