A Wisconsin school board voted last week to ban teachers from displaying Black Lives Matter and gay pride flags in their classrooms, saying such displays are political messaging.
With only one member opposing, the board of the Kettle Moraine School District in southeastern Wisconsin voted last week to affirm district Superintendent Stephen Plum’s decision to interpret the district’s ban on political messaging in classrooms to include prohibitions on the display of Black Lives Matter and gay pride flags. District staff are also barred from including their preferred pronouns in their email signatures.
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The ban does not just include prohibitions on flags and displays typically associated with left-wing causes. Any teacher or staffer with a pro-police flag such as a Blue Lives Matter or “back the badge” flag would run afoul of the policy. Religious displays are also prohibited.
“Teachers and administration will not have political flags or religious messaging in their classroom or on their person,” Plum said, according to FOX 6 Milwaukee.
In a statement to the Wisconsin outlet, an attorney for the Wisconsin chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said the organization is looking into the policy.
“If you have a policy that says ‘nothing political,’ does that mean you can’t have a sign up that says, ‘Support our Troops,’ or ‘Believe Women’ or ‘Save the Planet?’ By some people’s definitions, all of those things are political,” ACLU attorney Christine Donahoe said.
A significant crowd attended the board meeting where the policy was discussed. The majority of speakers during the meeting’s one-hour public comment period reportedly expressed opposition to the policy, claiming that pride and BLM flags are not political statements.
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“Pride flags are not me taking a political stance, they are a statement saying I accept myself and others,” one student said.
