Wisconsin school board bars staff from displaying Pride flags

A school board in southeastern Wisconsin has voted to prohibit teachers and staff from listing their pronouns in their email signatures, and from displaying LGBTQ Pride flags or other symbols considered as “political” by district officials.

The vote by the Kettle Moraine School Board came after a packed board meeting on Tuesday.

Late last month, a district code of ethics that prohibited the promotion of political or religious views was revised to include LGBTQ symbols and the displaying of pronouns in emails, according to local television station WTMJ-TV.

After the decision was announced on the district’s Facebook page on July 27, hundreds of social media users blasted the policy, saying that it would negatively affect an already marginalized group.

An online petition started by two Kettle Moraine high school students who were “outraged at this new policy” has been signed by more than 13,000 people as of Thursday morning.

“We already walk through the halls with fear,” Bethany Provan and Brit Farrar wrote. “We both have experienced very hateful and homophobic comments in the halls of our high school.”

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On Tuesday, several students and their families spoke out against the policy — even though officials decline to extend the comment period, which was capped at one hour, despite calls from the crowd.

“Pride flags are not me taking a political stance,” one student said during the meeting, according to WITI-TV. “They are a statement saying I accept myself and others.”

“I am not controversial. I am not political. I am a person,” another student told the board.

“I don’t see a good reason for this policy,” one parent said.

The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ and questioning youth, sent an open letter to the district late last month expressing their concern regarding the board’s “harmful” decision.

“According to The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth,” the letter reads in part. “However, LGBTQ youth who had access to spaces that affirmed their sexual orientation and gender identity — including schools — reported lower rates of attempting suicide than those who did not.”

Additionally, “LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult are 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt,” the letter, signed by the organization’s advocacy campaign director, Gabrielle Doyle, added.