[whell]

Students at California High School in San Ramon decided at a recent pep rally that the national anthem will no longer be played, bucking tradition and drawing the school into a national controversy about what and whom the anthem represents.

At the start of a winter pep rally Jan. 19, the anthem wasn’t performed. No announcement was made and the rally started with competitions between different grades, organized cheers and other activities intended to pump up students.

Dennis Fiorentinos, 18, a senior at California High, was one of a handful of people who noticed.

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Media: Brandpoint

“They’ve always played the national anthem, so I thought maybe they just forgot, but then I realized there’s no way they just forgot the national anthem,” Fiorentinos told The Chronicle.

He inquired about the anthem’s absence and learned that the Associated Student Body and other student leaders had decided to remove it from the rally — something Fiorentinos views as an overreach.