Wisconsin School Board Upholds Ban on Gay Pride Flags, Partisan Political Items

A Wisconsin schoolhouse committee voted Tuesday nighttime to uphold a argumentation banning cheery pridefulness flags and different partisan governmental items from being displayed successful classrooms oregon worn connected covering by staff.

This includes displaying governmental oregon spiritual messages, including cheery pridefulness flags, Thin Blue Line, and MAGA items. Staff besides cannot accidental successful emails what their preferred pronouns are.

The contented was raised astatine the Kettle Moraine School Board gathering attended by the nationalist aft ineligible investigation of the existing argumentation changed.

Superintendent Stephen Plum precocious told the board that the argumentation prohibits unit from utilizing their positions to beforehand partisan politics, spiritual views, and propaganda for personal, monetary, oregon nonmonetary gain.

The schoolhouse board’s ballot connected Tuesday did not alteration the wording of the argumentation successful immoderate way, but did alteration however the territory interprets and applies the policy, the schoolhouse board’s president, Gary Vose, noted astatine the public meeting.

“I’d besides constituent retired that this argumentation is overmuch broader than pronouns oregon pridefulness flags,” Vose said. “We request to recognize that though that was the contented that was truly raised by the nationalist contiguous this [policy] gets good beyond that.”

Vote

The contented was voted connected unanimously astatine a anterior meeting, but this clip committee clerk Jim Romanowski changed his ballot to nary aft proceeding from students, staff, and friends.

Responding to Romanowski, who did not hold that cheery pridefulness flags should beryllium banned nether the updated mentation of the policy, Vose noted that the bans would alteration all Kettle Moraine unit to enactment each students careless of partisan authorities oregon sexuality.

“Clearly it is our intent to person each unit members enactment each students and I would taxable that by having pridefulness flags successful immoderate classrooms and not successful others that—maybe it’s not the intent—but it could nonstop the connection that immoderate unit members privation to enactment students with assorted manner choices and others bash not,” Vose said.

“And we don’t privation that successful Kettle Moraine,” helium added. “We privation each unit members to enactment each students. We don’t privation to person struggle betwixt students oregon struggle betwixt unit members.”

Community Feedback

During the meeting, Vose noted the larger-than-usual attendance by members of the public. Public comments were initially expanded to 60 minutes astatine the apical of the gathering and nationalist requests for further clip were denied.

Most nationalist comments connected the nighttime were against the policy, but board subordinate Kelly Brown noted that the bulk of the emails she received astir the argumentation from territory residents “were pro the policy.”

Brown besides sought “stronger language” to amended specify the argumentation “so unit recognize what is allowable and what isn’t.”

An online petition started by 2 students opposing the argumentation has received much than 13,000 signatures, the Associated Press reported. It is not wide however galore of those signatures came from extracurricular of the schoolhouse district.