Mosby Woods Elementary School
Fairfax County Public School
9819 Five Oaks Road
Fairfax, Va 22031
January 21, 1999
Dear Parent,
Tomorrow night is International Night for the Mosby Woods community. Our celebration will
be help at Oakton High School cafeteria beginning at 7:00 pm. We look forward to being
together, visiting with neighbors, and enjoying our wonderful diverse community. A few
weeks ago all parents in the Mosby Wood's community received a letter informing them of
our January 22nd celebration and asking that their children make a flag of their country.
The letter had flags from different nations at the top and bottom of the letter. The
Vietnam flag that currently is recognized by the United Nations was on the border of this
letter along with other flags. Since that letter was sent to the community, we have heard
that this flag was offensive to our Vietnamese parents. This was clearly not the intend of
anyone on the committee. Please accept our apology for the discomfort that letter caused.
I wish also to assure the Vietnamese families that we will not display the flag that is
currently recognized by the United Nations which is representative of communist
government. We will, however, display the "free Vietnam flag" at International
Night, which is a yellow background with three horizontal red stripes since it represents
the history and culture of Vietnam.
As members of our community, we are grateful that you have helped us to learn about
symbols and understand how you feel about events that have happened in your country.
Sincerely,
Miss Shibles,
Principal. |
