Andrea Sinfield speaks to the Logan School District Board of Education about the issue of Pride flags being displayed in classrooms, during a meeting on Tuesday. Sinfield displayed artwork of rainbows that her child created, showing how they changed this year.
Andrea Sinfield speaks to the Logan School District Board of Education about the issue of Pride flags being displayed in classrooms, during a meeting on Tuesday. Sinfield displayed artwork of rainbows that her child created, showing how they changed this year.
During the public comment portion of Tuesday’s Logan City School District Board of Education Meeting, community members discussed their thoughts on whether teachers should be permitted to display certain symbols or flags in schools. The conversation focused heavily on pride flags in the classroom.
Jay Bates Domenech, the president of Logan High’s Gay-Straight Alliance, was the first to address the issue during the commentary, identifying themself as a queer individual.
“One of the first people I ever came out to was one of my teachers,” Domenech said. “I only came out to her because I saw that little ally pride flag in front of her classroom.”
Domenech explained they struggle with mental health problems and would not be here without feeling safe to speak with their teacher about their gender identity.
“My existence is not political,” Domenech said. “I think the simple use of a pride flag is not something that is going to affect anyone negatively.”
Andrea Sinfield, speaking on behalf of a group of parents from the Hillcrest and Adams neighborhoods, then stood up to address the room.
She said she didn’t intend to condemn any member of any group and didn’t mean to infer that any board members, principles, or teachers were trying to push ideals with the use of symbols.
She and a companion who shared her last name but was unwilling to disclose his first then presented several photocopies of her child’s artwork, setting them on easels they had brought for use during their statements.
Before classes began, Sinfield explained, her child drew rainbows just as she saw them in the sky. At a back-to-school night, Sinfield said she became concerned when she noticed pride flags displayed on two kindergarten classroom doors.
She then showed how her daughter’s rainbow drawings have changed through the course of the school year.
“Last week, however, while coloring in her free time after school, she draws a rainbow — but it has changed. It now starts with two new colors and no longer has the arching bow,” Sinfield said. “In her highlighted color schoolwork page she kept highlighting the letter ‘G’ in all the colors of the rainbow, yet once again including the two new colors.”
The pair then displayed other photocopies of Sinfield’s daughter’s artwork. The rainbow now went straight across the page and began with the colors black and brown.
Sinfield said she believes her daughter’s work has changed because she’s copying the pride flags displayed on the classroom doors she sees in her school.
“She is subconsciously repeating what she’s seen in a learning environment, not even knowing what the symbol means,” Sinfield said. “The only place she has seen those colors added on top of a rainbow in straight lines has been the two kindergarten front doors.”
Sinfield expressed her disdain for what she believes is unintentional yet effective messaging to her child.
“Is it the responsibility of schools to display these flags and symbols to subliminally condition children to respond more favorably to the ideals and practices of these groups, or is it the responsibility of schools to focus on and teach curriculum?” Sinfield asked.
After expressing concern that fostering inclusion and safe spaces could unintentionally make some groups superior to others, she stated her support for politically neutral classrooms. She spoke in favor of a Davis School District policy she said only allows state and national flags to be displayed in schools.
“Make no mistake,” Sinfield said. “I would be here with the same fervor and passion if there was a white supremacist symbol or swastika flag in a kindergarten classroom learning space and she started to draw that symbol before she knew what it meant.”
Melanie Domenech Rodríguez, a combined clinical/counseling specialization professor at Utah State University, spoke against this kind of comparison when she addressed the room.
“The Nazi flag was made to communicate the dehumanization of an entire group of people, the flag was the symbol of a group that literally wanted us to be okay with the eradication of an entire group of people — Jewish people,” Rodríguez said. “The pride flag is exactly the opposite. The pride flag beckons us all to consider this humanity of LGBT students. Please do not put these in the same category. They are categorically opposed.”
Rodríguez said unique individuals each have a unique, individual set of needs.
“What is being labeled as political neutrality,” Rodríguez said, “I don’t see, in fact, as neutrality.”
The ultimate decision as to whether teachers hang pride flags, Rodríguez said, belongs to the teacher.
When Tessa Burton addressed the subject, she recalled her own experience teaching Chinese to first-graders.
“My kids came from everything you could think of,” Burton said, explaining the diverse ethnicities and family structures of her students. “Here’s the thing: I had a good relationship with all of my students, with all of their parents.”
Burton said she didn’t need a flag to make her students feel safe.
“It doesn’t matter what symbol, what flag it is,” Burton said. “We’re all here in America. We’re all here in Utah, and that’s enough.”
Logan High school counselor Amy Anderson said LGBTQ students are not receiving the support they need. She said she has noticed targeted bullying toward the group increase over the past year.
“Right now, our LGBT students are not supported, and they don’t feel safe physically or emotionally to be able to come to school and learn. A rainbow flag helps an LGBT student know who is safe,” Anderson said. “A rainbow flag is not a political statement.”
Chilali Hugo, the director of harp studies at USU, also weighed in on the issue.
“As often mentioned in such situations, parents actually do have the opportunity to choose whether their child of this age learns about such symbols of inclusion,” Hugo said. “This is about children — children that need to be seen for who they are. Children that might need to go to a trusted adult at school because they’re being bullied. Children that will hopefully be alive someday because of that trust.”
Though the meeting’s agenda didn’t include any consideration for actual action from the board on the topic, it was the sole subject of a workshop it held before the public hearing began.
After the time allotted for public comments was complete, Domenech expressed frustration to The Herald Journal regarding some of the things said during the meeting.
“I just don’t see queerness as a political issue, and I don’t see including kids as a political issue,” Domenech said. “I can try to understand their point of view, but the reality is they are saying things that are directly against my identity.”
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