An Idaho school system ordered one of its teachers to remove a pair of “Everyone is welcome” posters hanging in her classroom over concerns they would “inadvertently” flame division, according to reports.
But Lewis and Clark Middle School teacher Sarah Inama, 35, is refusing back down after she received the directive from the West Ada School District on Feb. 3, leading to month-long turmoil within the district that was capped off by school officials using a sports analogy to justify their demands.
“I took them down, but I was very sad about it,” Inama told the Idaho Statesman this week. “And the following few days, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. I came back in on a Saturday with my husband and my baby, and I put it back up.”
One sign reads “Everyone is welcome here” with hands around the message in various skin tones while the other poster states, “In this room, everyone is welcomed, important, accepted, respected, encouraged, valued” with a different background color in the background of each word, the outlet reported.
“I was told that ‘everyone is welcome here’ is not something that everybody believes. So that’s what makes it a personal opinion,” Inama additionally claimed to KTVB.
The district provided emails to the Statesman that showed the district’s chief academic officer, Marcus Myers, told Inama to take down the signs because they broke rules tied to the state’s Dignity and Nondiscrimination in Public Education Act and school policy that mandates signs be “content neutral and conducive to a positive learning environment.”
The district told the newspaper it feared the two signs would “inadvertently create division or controversy.”
It also said the message in the “Everyone is welcome here” sign wasn’t the issue, but pointed to the different skin toned hands.
West Ada school leaders sent out a districtwide memo Wednesday reemphasizing its policy amid the backlash.
“Much like a well-coached sports team, success in education comes from following a structured game plan,” the memo obtained by KTVB stated.
“Every player knows that while they bring their own strengths and personality to the game, they must operate within the rules to maintain fairness and consistency.”
Inama said she was warned the signs better be gone by the end of the year in May.
“Obviously, it would not be easy or ideal to lose my job,” she told the Statesman.
“I would miss my students immensely, and it would be a real financial hardship for me. But I just fundamentally feel … so unsettled and disturbed by what they’re asking me to do. I just can’t be complacent in it.”
