Burlington middle school pride celebration mocked as students 'destroyed rainbow decorations,' advocates say
BURLINGTON - What was supposed to be a celebration of LGBTQ+ pride at the Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington was instead met with "intolerance and homophobia," advocates said at a Select Board meeting Monday night.
Nancy Bonassera, co-chair of the Burlington Equity Coalition, said that students were invited to wear rainbow clothing on June 2 in celebration of Pride Month.
"On that same day there was a counter-demonstration in response to what should have been a day to celebrate," she said. "Students wore red, white and blue clothing, chanted 'my pronouns are USA' and destroyed rainbow decorations at the school."
The coalition is calling for "consequences" for the students who participated in the counter-protest and is urging the district to fill a diversity, equity and inclusion role that they say has been vacant for almost a year.
"We also believe that without any direct and concrete action, these incidents will occur again and increase in severity," Bonassera said.
Former School Committee member Carl Foss testified that he was "surprised that incidents like this could happen in Burlington."
"I thought Burlington was a safer place than Texas or Florida," Foss said. "Obviously I was wrong."
Select Board member Michael Espejo said a "bad light has been cast over our town."
"I was very upset, I've lost sleep over it," Espejo said about the incident. "It kind of shocked me to my core. I didn't think something like that could happen in Burlington."
Select Board Chair Michael Runyan said the board "takes this matter seriously" and will continue to have conservations about the issue over the coming weeks.
Burlington School Committee Chair Martha Simon condemned the incident at a meeting Tuesday night, but declined any specifics on disciplinary actions, stressing the offenders were mere eighth graders.
"Middle school should be a safe place for all students to express themselves, to make mistakes, and to learn from each other," Simon said.
But a room full of parents, mostly of LGBTQ kids, argued that school officials needed to take a stronger stand and use the incident as a "teaching moment" refuting the notion that overt pride displays are somehow not appropriate for schools.
"Doing something publicly or within your line of vision, like wearing rainbows or flying a pride flag is not shoving it down your throat," parent Sarah Cawley said at the meeting Tuesday night.
"It would be naïve of us to think that what happened at the middle school won't escalate to something more tragic in the future," said parent Jessika Dubay-Dang. "It isn't going to go magically away; it will get worse."
School officials say the past 10 days have included several discussions on the subject between staff and students, but some critics argue the public message has been muddled and needs to go beyond the youngsters.
"While these students are culpable, the underlying issue is where did they get the idea to do this in the first place?" former teacher Andrea Bono-Bunker said.
Several people criticized the disbanding of the school district's diversity, equity, and inclusion committee and the superintendent promised that hiring someone to relaunch that effort will be a top priority this summer.
The Human Rights Campaign recently declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people, saying dozens of anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been signed into law this year.