ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) – The sound of the Pledge of Allegiance -- this is what brought Escondido high school students Angela Calderon Pio, Derek Lam and Michelle Cortes to speak at Escondido City Hall on Wednesday night.
Particularly, their concerns are what happened at the start and end of last month’s council meeting with City Councilmember Mike Morasco.
“Me and Angela were there for the pledge. Then once they introduced it, we kind of looked at each other because we weren’t sure what we should do,” Lam said. “So, we just decided to stand for the pledge but not exactly recite it.”
“We were approached by Councilmember Morasco,” Calderon Pio said. “He asked us, ‘Are you U.S. citizens?’”
“So that felt very disrespectful as a long-time Escondido resident. So, we said, ‘Yes we are.’ And then he basically told us that we are being disrespectful towards out veterans, toward people who fought for our country,” Calderon Pio added.
While also standing for the pledge on Wednesday night, the students -- who are a part of a group called the Escondido City Youth Council -- spoke on their own accord about their concerns after what they said happened at the last council meeting.
“He (Morasco) needs to take time to acknowledge what he said to us and how hurtful in the meeting it was … especially the youth of Escondido as a whole,” Lam said.
“We did nothing wrong and that was within our rights. So, I think that’s important that we make that clear to people in Escondido,” Calderon Pio said.
ABC 10News reached out to Morasco for an interview about the situation. In an email, Morasco responded by saying that wasn’t what he asked the students and the question he did ask was rhetorical.
Morasco said the message behind it was actions have consequences, adding that by not respecting the flag through participating in the pledge could lead to consequences of others not respecting them or their messages.
On Wednesday night, Morasco invited the students to meet with him after the meeting.
“Because I’d like this misunderstanding to be taken care of, thanks,” Morasco said during the council meeting.
The students met with Morasco for what Cortes told ABC 10News was about 15 minutes or so.
“One of the main things he wanted to address was kind of how there was a miscommunication when we had that conversation with him. I think it was very helpful to understand the perspective of both sides,” Cortes said.
Cortes told ABC 10News she mentioned in the meeting with the councilmember that hearing comments about citizenship isn’t the first time some students hear that.
She said she wanted some kind of apology or understanding of the words that were used.
“Yeah, I feel like we got that, for the most part. I think there’s still a lot of work our council can do and Councilmember Morasco can do. But, for now, I think that was a great step forward to helping understand,” Cortes said.
