A Colorado school district could soon let teachers fly Black Lives Matter and transgender flags in the classroom, but not make other political statements.
The Durango School District 9-R’s school board is set to consider two resolutions that support displaying the “Progress Pride” and BLM flags in classrooms and double down on DEI and gender ideology. The district banned all political flags in September, when a parent filed a complaint claiming the BLM and transgender “Pride Progress” flags in their child’s classroom are “political symbols” that “indoctrinate students.”
Chief Academic Officer Dylan Connell reviewed the situation with legal counsel and determined that the “Pride Progress” and BLM symbols are “political in nature.” He directed school staff to remove the flags and all other political content “immediately.” On October 1, principals at the high school and middle school told staff that “political flags, posters and items displaying political symbols” must be removed from classrooms in response to a parental complaint.
But just two weeks later, the school board voted unanimously to suspend the ban on the flags amid an outcry from the liberal area’s residents, including a student walkout. Then, at a November school board meeting, board members indicated they thought a special resolution might give them a legal loophole to display the progressive flags without opening the door to all political speech or violating the First Amendment.
“By designating it government speech and adopting [them] as symbols of our school district, it avoids a First Amendment problem,” board member Rick Petersen said.
Essentially, the school district itself would be endorsing the “Progress Pride” and BLM flags rather than simply allowing teachers to display them.
Denver Public Schools won a legal battle using a similar argument last year when a judge ruled that a pride flag in a classroom was the district’s own speech, so the First Amendment did not apply. A parent had complained that the pride flag was discriminatory, since the school did not also display a “straight pride” flag.
The fear of a “straight lives matter” flag came up during the Durango school board’s meeting when a student asked what they would do if someone wanted to display such a flag.
“You just say no, and if they want to sue us then we’ll see what the courts say,” a board member responded.
The district now has two resolutions on the table that would allow teachers to display both the “Progress Pride” and BLM flags.
The pride flag resolution claims that “affirming gender identity” is one of the “most effective mental health interventions” for trans-identifying children despite mounting pushback from medical professionals.
It also doubles down on “honoring” a student’s self-reported gender identity, saying it “will not wait” for the “acceptance” of “outside adults,” presumably parents. The resolution also says the district “does not require parental consent” to be in their school’s LGBT club, and emphasizes that the district supports trans-identifying students using the bathroom of the opposite sex.
The BLM flag resolution doubles down on the district’s 2021 DEI resolution and states that “addressing systemic inequities” does not “diminish the value, rights, inclusion, or educational opportunities of other students.”
“The Black Lives Matter movement, like the civil rights and Black Power movements before it, has effectively articulated the systemic injustices that exist at the intersections of race, class, and gender,” the second resolution reads.
The resolutions appear to be drafted by Kristin Smith, the board’s president, and Erika Brown, the vice president.
The Colorado Republican Party’s vice chairwoman has voiced strong opposition to the resolutions.
The LGBT resolution “blatantly disregards students who hold religious, cultural, or personal beliefs that conflict with LGBTQIA2S+ ideologies,” said vice chairwoman Hope Scheppelman, who is also the secretary of the county party.
“These students and families are effectively told they don’t matter,” Scheppelman said.
The school board is expected to consult with the district’s lawyers this month before considering formally adopting the resolutions.
Last week, the Trump administration took an axe to DEI initiatives, including scrapping all government DEI programs and putting their staff on leave.
As the flag controversy was going on, the Durango school district was dealing with another crisis — one of its teachers was accused of sexually abusing dozens of local children.
In October, Benjamin Smith, 28, a music teacher at one of the district’s middle schools was arrested and charged with 48 counts of coercion and enticement of a minor and possession of child pornography, including sexually explicit photographs of more than two dozen children in the Durango area, according to a federal indictment.
Smith was accused of posing as a 16-year-old girl on Snapchat and getting a teenager to meet him in a parking lot for sex. The teen met Smith, but then reported him to the police.
