There will, for forever and a day, be a debate about what students should be learning in school and that’s a good thing. That debate is absolutely necessary with something as important as education. Every parent will have a different notion of what the ideal learning environment and curriculum is for their child and they will always keep their kid’s needs at the forefront. That’s how parenting works.
One of the big dividing lines is politics. Is there a place for political discussions in middle school classrooms? Is there a line between discussion and support that shouldn’t be crossed?
In the hyperpartisan environment of 2020 politics, those questions are even more contentious than usual and one teacher in Reno, Nevada has found herself thrust into the spotlight after a TikTok video she made about her school board’s policies regarding politics went viral.
Jennifer Leja teaches 7th and 8th grades in Nevada’s Washoe County School District.
And as she told BuzzFeed News , she’s also her school’s only openly LGBTQ+ teacher at her school. As such, she has become a go-to resource for kids with some complicated questions at a stage in their lives when they’re trying to figure themselves out. She has also acquired a lot of rainbows over the years, including a rainbow pride flag.
This year, the school board district told her that she needed to part ways with the flag.
It’s part of a new policy Washoe District School Board has adopted this year.
As BuzzFeed News reported, the policy prohibits “partisan political activity” while class is in, and says that “any signage that is displayed on District property that is, or becomes, political in nature must be removed or covered.”
Leja’s superiors informed her that that does include LGBTQ+ issues. “The courts have held LGBTQ+ issues to be political speech and thus, the rainbow flag [is considered] to be political speech, so it cannot be expressed through clothing and other means, such as displaying a flag in your class,” a trustee wrote in an email.
The trustee also clarified that Leja was welcome to discuss the fact that she had a girlfriend with her students; she just couldn’t express support for LGBTQ+ issues with “visual aids.”
Leja’s classroom pride flag is far from the first to spark controversy.
Bayfield, Colorado, for example, grappled with the issue after an eighth grade teacher hung a pride flag in her classroom, sparking a heated in-class discussion followed by a town hall meeting, the Durango Herald reported.
In Banks, Oregon, reports of American flags being removed in a high school classroom in favor of pride flags sparked outrage, but proved not to be true, Oregonlive reported. While pride flags were displayed, they did not displace American flags and they were ultimately allowed to remain.
Parents and students alike petitioned for the removal of a pride flag from an Alabama high school classroom in 2017, comparing it to the Confederate flag. As NBC News reported, the petition did not garner much support.
For Leja, the idea of putting a rainbow pride flag in her classroom has just as much to do with who she is as what she supports.
“The issue that I have with it is, I don’t think my existence and my identity is a political issue,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I think that being able to have a rainbow flag is as much a part of my identity as anything else.”
“It’s legal in every state to get married; it’s legal for LGBT people to exist in this country right now, so I don’t see how it’s a political issue,” she continued.
However, Leja emphasizes that the presence of a rainbow flag is critical for her students.
“It’s important for me because I feel like there are students who spend their lives in the closet and especially in middle school; that is when students are starting to figure out where they are,” she told BuzzFeed News. “They go through that time period where they don’t know who they are or what they like.”
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Her initial reaction to the new policy involved a TikTok video that has since gone viral.
In it, she noted that even though she won’t be able to have the pride flag in her classroom, she’ll still be surrounded by rainbows. “No politics in Miss Leja’s classroom; she just really likes rainbows,” is her mantra .
Nevertheless, the school board is standing by its policy.
Trustee Andrew Caudill noted that it’s not just LGBTQ+ issues that are affected by the policy, but “other kinds of speech such as Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, NRA, etc.” as well.
“It is inappropriate for the District as a government entity to select only speech it agrees with. As a result, it is in the best interests of our learning communities to ask staff to refrain from all single-issue political speech,” he told BuzzFeed News.
“But I want to be abundantly clear, the policy does not require staff to hide their own sexuality. Teachers can let students know their sexuality, or mention their significant others, if they wish, regardless of sexuality. The policy does not impact who a teacher is, it only impacts the advocacy for a specific political position.”
h/t: BuzzFeed News
