An Oregon school district voted Tuesday to ban Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ and other “political” signs, flags and articles of clothing from their campuses, reports NBC BLK.
After hearing from a fraction of community members who have opinions on the subject, the Newberg Public Schools board voted 4-3 to keep any sort of political signage out of school.
The board will later decide what counts as “political,” but Pride flags and BLM messages were repeatedly referenced during the meeting.
Superintendent Joe Morelock said he will have to meet with the district’s lawyers before enforcing the ban.
“I won’t be able to enforce it as it is until we’ve gone through a bunch of legal review,” he said.
School board director and vice chair Brian Shannon, who voted for the measure and added the language about apparel, said the “main goal of this is to get political symbols and divisive symbols out of our schools so we can focus on the already difficult task of educating our students in the core subjects.”
The apparel rule would only apply to staff while they are working.
Board member Brandy Penner countered that the top five performing schools in the state had diversity coordinators and diversity statements, while the districts that were struggling educationally have a “lack of anything to do with equity.”
