Maryland parents opposed to the creeping progressive capture of the state’s public schools suffered a defeat this week when the Anne Arundel school board voted against a measure that would ban pride flags in classrooms — but they’re not backing down.
“Even though we lost this battle, we are still going full ahead with the war, and we plan to win that,” said local mom Kerry Gillespie. “This is emblematic of what we’re seeing in the country, which is a fight between parents and saying what is best for their children within our education system, which courts have already said is our fundamental right.”
School-board members shot down a policy that would limit the display of classroom flags to city, county, state, and national flags at a meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Board member Corine Frank proposed the ban last year after parents saw pride flags in county classrooms.
“We had concerns in the community, and we’ve seen a lot of division and people using the flags to create division,” Frank said. “Creating a neutral learning environment was important to my constituents.”
Gillespie, who is chair of the Maryland Alliance for Parents and Students, said that three of her children have been in classrooms in which pride flags were displayed. Although teachers say that pride flags create “safe spaces” for students, Gillespie said that such flags are divisive.
“It is a distraction from the learning environment and it actually creates unsafe spaces for the majority of children, and unsafe spaces that don’t allow for diversity of thoughts,” she said.
Four board members voted against the policy and one member abstained. Supporters of “inclusive” pride flags say that the flags help LGBTQ children feel affirmed, but Gillespie said that pride flags go against the community’s religious beliefs. Parents from Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faiths gathered at Wednesday’s meeting to protest the flags, which they say oppose religious freedom. Gillespie said that parents are considering legal action.
“As parents, we are not okay with letting go. We’re not okay with the fact that the board is picking up what I feel is clear discrimination, as to which students that they will create safe spaces for in classrooms,” she said. “I will be going before my board again and advocating for my children, and also my right as a parent to direct their fundamental upbringing.”
Anne Arundel isn’t the only district to consider banning political flags. The neighboring Carroll County school board voted last year to limit the display of political flags after students and teachers brought LGBTQ flags into classrooms and a Wisconsin school district passed a measure last year to prohibit staff from displaying such flags. An all-Muslim city council in Hamtramck, Michigan voted to exclude pride flags from city property: “We serve everybody equally with no discrimination but without favoritism,” Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib said of the issue.