After careful consideration by a school board in Vermont, the LGBTQ Pride flag and Black Lives Matter flag will fly over all public schools in Clarendon, North Clarendon, Shrewsbury, Wallingford and Tinmouth, Vermont.
The proposal, put forth by high school senior Reese Eldert-Moore, focused on countering racist policies throughout the school district, according to a report in the online independent news source VTDigger. The proposal included raising the Black Lives Matter flag. Upon accepting the proposal back in June, the school board added the Pride flag to be raised over the schools as well, to support its LGBTQ students.
“When I attended Mill River, students would use hateful terms and slang constantly, whether they knew it or not,” Mill River Union High 2015 graduate Christrian Brand told VTDigger. “Imagine how I and others would have felt if we saw a Pride flag wave across the school grounds? How we could have been given the chance earlier to be ourselves and thrive.”
As soon as the school board approved Eldert-Moore’s proposal, however, a group of residents pushed for a series of public comment meetings. And a candidate running for the Vermont House of Representatives in the upcoming election and others quickly put together a petition with 500 signatures to oppose the proposal.
Reports VTDigger:
Arthur Peterson of Clarendon, who is running as a Republican to represent the Rutland-2 District in the Vermont House of Representatives, helped organize [the petition].
Mainly, Peterson worries the board rushed the decision without seeking more public input. But his objections are not only related to process. He said he believes Black Lives Matter is an extreme and violent organization, and he’s concerned the flags will politicize the local education system.
“As for the Pride flag, it’s just perverse,” he said at a June 25 Community Engagement Committee meeting on Zoom. “I’m sorry. I’m an old timer, maybe that’s language you don’t want to hear. We need to bring up our kids in a way that doesn’t subject them to this.”
Eldert-Moore said the petition leads her to believe there’s more anti-racism work to be done within the community.
“It’s not up to you to decide whether I matter enough,” Eldert-Moore said in response to the request for a vote. “It’s a statement. People are saying it’s political when it really should not be. It’s just common courtesy. It’s saying, hey, I exist, treat me like a human.” …
At the conclusion of the [last public comments meeting, last week], Tammy Heffernan, board chair, referenced a conversation she’d had with the board’s legal counsel. She said the elected board members hold legal responsibility for such decisions; the electorate doesn’t hold the authority to instruct the board’s policy.
The board’s responsibility as a representative democracy, she said, is to hear from the community, then implement practices and policies based on their own discretion. …
With that, the board began a discussion about how, not whether, to fly the flags.
Heffernan said the board plans to post a formal decision within the next 10 days. Still she’s aware that not all community members want the flag raised.
“I think it will definitely inform the board moving forward that everyone’s not on board, and will give us thoughtful consideration of how we handle the flag-raising ceremony itself, and try to be respectful of the entire community,” she said. “But our focus, first and foremost, is and should be the students.”
Read the full story on VTDigger’s website.
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