Stoughton students and parents protest pride flag ban in schools
STOUGHTON - Outside of the bi-weekly Stoughton School Committee meeting Tuesday, a group of over 100 parents, students, and some faculty gathered to protest a new policy instituted by the superintendent this year. The policy bans all flags in classrooms other than American flags, including pride flags and "Black Lives Matter" flags.
"I made the decision to keep all of our classrooms neutral learning environments free of any items such as flags, posters, or materials that are unrelated to the curriculum," a letter to families from Superintendent Thomas Raab reads. "In order to be consistent across the district, there was no way to allow one type of flag or poster without allowing others. This expectation was not focused on any particular group and was not motivated by politics or personal beliefs."
Students, led by senior Olivia Tran, have started a petition to encourage the superintendent to get rid of the ban. Tran is bisexual and says regarding LGBTQ+ students as not "neutral" to the academic environment erases their identity. "People in those communities, they are not different from other people," she told WBZ. "We are all people and supporting those communities doesn't make somebody not neutral."
Some faculty members have been reprimanded for ignoring the ban, Tran says. She was suspended from school for walking out of class in protest of the ban, or for causing a disruption, as she was told.
At the school committee meeting Tuesday, the ban was not on the agenda, but it consumed the entire public comment section. About 20 people poured into the tiny school committee room with dozens more filling the halls. Olivia Tran spoke, and so did three adults in support of the policy.
"It is not the schools' job to portray, alternative lifestyles, or support movements with a flag in an academic setting," one mother said.
A local rabbi took the microphone next, calling Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ people anarchists to the school committee. "They burn, they loot, they sexualize our children and cause violence against anyone who are not them," he said.
That same rabbi was in a heated exchange with Olivia Tran's mother outside of the meeting before it began, criticizing parents for not teaching their kids abstinence and for "sexualizing" them.
Inside the meeting, school committee members expressed frustration that the superintendent made this decision without first running it by them.
However, Superintendent Raab said he has no plans to change the ban, emphasizing that classroom doors have been given "ally" stickers and teachers given "ally" necklaces in place of flags to show support for LGBTQ students.