Parents and Students Protest LGBTQ+ Signage Ban
Photo depiction of a supporter holding gay pride flag. Photo from NBC News.
Olivia George
On October 13, dozens of parents and students in Waukesha County attended a school board meeting to voice their opinions regarding the district’s recent ban. The Superintendent James Sebert eliminated staff diversity training and ended the district’s equity leadership team. The district also ruled in late August to require teachers to remove all signs and symbols in support of controversial issues including the LGBTQ+ community, Thin Blue Line, BLM, and blue lives matter from their classrooms. “And if they were not taken down, they were torn down” (Falk, 2021). The decision to ban rainbow signs from classrooms created an uproar amongst some parents and students within the community, resulting in the organization of a protest.
Although all signs in direct support of the LGBTQ+ community were banned, the student gay-straight alliance was eventually allowed to hang posters around the school to advertise their club only if they were printed without rainbows in black and white. However, all other school clubs and organizations were permitted to print in full color.
Both LGBTQ+ students and allies of the community spoke out against this ruling at the school board meeting by sporting the colors of the rainbow associated with the gay community and voicing their disproval. Samuel D’Amico, the 15 year old freshman in charge of organizing the protest declared, “I shouldn’t have to be this involved in the school board unless I thought something was fundamentally wrong.” The action taken by both parents and students shows the vast impact the ruling had.
Although the ban was not on the agenda for discussion, over an hour of the board meeting was spent debating the impacts of the ban on controversial signs. The passionate beliefs of citizens was displayed clearly through the lengthy discussion of the repercussions of the ruling on students.
One parent, in support of the ban, argued, “Children should not be bringing their sexual preferences, political or gender identities to school.”
Another parent took the opposite stance, expressing his distress over the ban. Father David Simmons, of St. Matthias Church, presented the story of the bullying his daughter experienced after the passing of the ban. Simmon’s daughter, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, brought a pride flag to school in protest of the ban. Her flag was stolen and vandalized. “A group of students took one over to a table, took a pen, wrote Trump 2020 and Blue Lives Matter on the table in front of my daughter and her friends, who were all a part of that community.’” Simmon’s greatest concern resides in the idea that the removal of these signs decreased the protection of students within the community; therefore, allowing acts of hatred and discrimination to continue within the district.
A teacher interviewed for the story who asked to remain anonymous stated, “Teachers are afraid to wear rainbow pins on their clothing; some are being called into the office by the administration. Teachers will not allow students to discuss social issues in the classrooms” (Falk, 2021). This ban and the environment the rulings have created is causing teachers to change their curriculum, and fear for their jobs.
The discussion of the ban of LGBTQ+ flags from the classroom and how it impacts students is far from over. The members of the protest will be sure to attend the next meeting in November where they will resume the conversation.
Sources:
Parents, students speak up following Waukesha School District's decision to ban LGBT signage
