Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
According to a Milwaukee-area school district, staff and teachers are not allowed to display LGBT pride or Black Lives Matter messaging on their desks, in their classrooms, or on their person; and, based on a ruling by both the district board and superintendent, apparently should never have been allowed to do so.
As first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kettle Moraine School District superintendent Stephen Plum told school employees that existing policy prohibited the display of overtly religious or political messages in classrooms or on one’s person.
It was only in late July, though, that Plum announced his intention to enforce the rule on such items as gay pride or Black Lives Matter flags, posters, and associated items.
“We live in a world where politics are highlighted, and it puts people in uncomfortable positions,” Plum said at the time. “I feel the staff can fully support students. I feel that every staff member, custodian, and teacher ought to know that it’s really in the best interest of the students to look out for them and to have strong, healthy relationships that develop therefrom.”
Numerous critics emerged and demanded the policy be overturned and more than 13,000 people signed a petition demanding its removal but, according to an Associated Press report, the district school board affirmed the policy with just one member voting in opposition.
WITI-TV, a Wisconsin Fox affiliate, reported that the meeting was widely attended and that critics occupied much of the public comment time.
“The fact is, the majority of students don’t want or need this, so catering to the minority only encourages the envelope to be pushed further,” one student said.
The board’s decision was hardly a shock as Plum seems to have had the support of the board since he first announced his interpretation. Gary Vose, the board president, said as much in July.
“This isn’t a case where we’re trying to discriminate against any group or groups for that matter, but rather just to bring clarity to allow staff to know where the line is drawn on these various things,” The AP quoted Vose as saying. “It’s not a popularity contest. Regardless what we do here, we’re going to have some that are going to love it, some that are going to hate it. Regardless of that, I think it’s the right thing to do. I’m fully behind it.”
Kettle Moraine, which is situated just west of the Milwaukee metropolitan area, grabbed the headlines this week, but it was the second district in the state to have banned political ephemera in its classrooms.
Late last year, as reported by the Journal Sentinel, the Waukesha School District forbade the observance of “Rainbow Friday” and barred Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, Thin Blue Line, and “any other posters or materials” of a political nature.
In that case, one Waukesha elementary school suspended a teacher for refusing to remove a gay pride flag from her classroom. The teacher missed a day of work, and the flag was removed in her absence.