A proposed flag display policy roils Beloit’s most recent school board meeting.
The initial policy, recommended last week by the school board’s policy committee, read that only the U.S. flag and the Wisconsin state flag could be displayed in classrooms and outside district buildings.
That language drew an impassioned response during an hourslong public comment period at Tuesday night’s meeting from LGBTQ employees, students and their allies who said the policy was a move aimed at barring display of the Pride flag. Several said that forcing removal of the Pride flag would send the signal that the school district doesn’t support LGBTQ people, and that could lead to adverse mental and physical health effects for students and staff.
Board members took the policy off the meeting’s consent agenda to debate it. Policy committee Chairman Brian Nichols submitted a narrower amended policy that said the U.S. and state flag restriction would apply only to the flagpoles outside district buildings and not to classrooms.
He said the change would address many of the concerns raised during public comment.
Board member Megan Miller said introducing the original policy created an unneeded uproar and wasted board meeting time that could have been used to discuss more pressing district matters, such as its recent failed operational referendum.
Board President Tia Johnson said the policy wasn’t intended as a slight to the district’s LGBTQ community. She said the district needed the policy because constituents threatened lawsuits over the district flying the Pride flag in June of last year. Miller said the district received guidance from the state that established case law would protect the district from such lawsuits.
The amended policy with the flagpole restriction passed on a 4-3 vote with Nichols, Johnson, Tom Hankins and Brian Anderson in favor. Miller, Amiee Leavy and Gregg Schneider voted no.
The board adjourned immediately after that vote, leaving several agenda items unaddressed, including other policy proposals that were pulled off the consent agenda and a discussion of the failed referendum. The board also tabled other items that were on the original meeting agenda that will have to be revisited in the future.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the school board passed the initial proposed flag display policy that would have applied to indoor displays of other flags.
