Holden-area schools will only allow US and Maine flags in classrooms
The RSU 63 school board on Monday voted 7-1 without discussion to have only the U.S. and Maine flags displayed in classrooms.
The rural school unit of Holden, Clifton and Eddington has been considering the policy that would ban rainbow flags and flags from other nations that were not part of a study unit from being displayed in classrooms.
Rainbow flags, also called pride flags, often are displayed to support people in the LGBTQ community.
The approximately 50 people, including students and staff, attending the meeting appeared to be evenly divided over the issue.
The flag policy, first adopted in 2017, outlines how the U.S. and Maine flags are displayed and when the Pledge of Allegiance is to be recited. The vote added the following sentence to the policy: “No other flags will be on display and remain on display unless it is pertinent to the current lesson for illustration.”
A seventh-grader at the Holbrook MIddle School, whose father asked that she not be identified, told the board that removing the rainbow flags signaled that the community does not care about LGBTQ students.
“Looking at rainbow flags in classrooms makes me feel not alone,” she told the board. “Without the flags, the school feels unwelcome, unsafe, like I don’t belong and that people don’t care. Pride flags can make students feel welcomed.”
After the vote, she said that she felt betrayed by the board.
“They didn’t take our ideas into consideration,” she said. “We were unheard, disrespected and our rights are being violated. By taking down the [rainbow] flags, they are saying that we can’t express ourselves.”
Ashley Murphy of Clifton, who has children attending schools in the district, supported the policy change.
“These two flags are really important,” she said. “I don’t think that flags are things that make students feel welcome. What makes students feel welcome are the teachers and staff.”
Board members Matthew Campbell, Cherie Faulkner, Tracy Roberts and Heather Lander, all of Holden, voted in favor of the policy, along with Karen Quimby of Eddington, and Linda Graban of Clifton and Heather Grass of Eddington voted in favor of the change to the flag policy.
Tracy Bigney of Eddington was the only board member who opposed the change to the policy.
After the meeting Campbell, who chairs the policy committee, refused to say how concerns about flags other than the U.S. and Maine banners being displayed in classrooms were brought to the board. Roberts, the board chair, declined to answer questions after the meeting adjourned.
Superintendent Jared Fulgoni, who was hired in June, said that he thought the issue arose before he was hired.
The policy also states that the U.S. and Maine flags are to be displayed outside each school in the district with the stars and stripes being displayed in each classroom. It calls for the voluntary reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance and requires that people remove head coverings when reciting it. At Bigney’s request, the board amended that section to allow for an exception for religious reasons.
Information about how many school districts in Maine have passed similar policies was unavailable.