Teacher Resigns After Parent Complains Pride Flag Is "Personal Agenda"

[muichimotsu]

Here is a legit question for any professional educators that may be reading this thread: Do licensed teachers have a prescribed Code of Ethics?

For example, my profession has a prescribed Code of Ethics that requires strict boundaries between clients and professionals. Violations to the Code of Ethics are grounds for loss of licensure. Is there a corollary in the teaching world? Are boundaries and ethics in the classroom part of our teacher education? Or are future teachers merely taught subject matter and teaching methods?

Code of Ethics for Educators | NEA
This may be a start, but I'd have to look around more or ask people that may be more knowledgable.

 

[tstor]

A minority complaint must have basis in fact and the complaint we know of has no such demonstrable or substantive foundation. A teacher isn't teaching students to be gay merely because of the presence of an LGBTQ flag anymore than they're teaching them to be bi, trans, ace, etc

I'd imagine that flag makes some students uncomfortable, particulary in Missouri. A teacher should seek to estalish an environment that limits the number of distractions. An LGBT flag really doesn't do that in some contexts.

 

[muichimotsu]

NRA "policy" being support of the. (American) constitution from further infringement.

Kinda like rainbow that way.

"Make America Great Again" does not include all Americsns?

I hear your flag makes a lot of Americans feel "uncomfortable", or,
"threatened".

The constitution does not give an absolute right to bear arms and the 2nd amendment was initially and primarily written with the intent of citizen militias, not individual rights to have a bazooka. There are reasonable limits in place and America needs them when we have so many guns, it's almost a 1:1 ratio of citizens to guns

The problem is the idea of "great" with MAGA is nationalist and proto fascist

"My flag"? What are you even talking about? BLM flag is not something that should be treated like some tribalist identifier, it's standing against systemic racial injustice, like the rainbow flag saying that people who aren't in the "norm" of being straight and cisgender are valid and should not be dehumanized

Or do you mean the American flag, which was the founding of a nation that literally considered blacks 3/5 of a person and treated slavery as the norm until they realized it was socially unpopular and had to endure a civil war to move past it in some manner? Yeah, it's not shocking some people find it unpleasant in the idea that it supposedly is unifying, yet even the national anthem has lyrics that invoke slaves and how they cannot run away. America is not a remote utopia, it's bordering on dystopia.

 

[muichimotsu]

Agreed, since it is a public school, a government entity, and the teacher is an authority, that is a different question than even a private business. The teacher is presumed to be speaking for the district, for the government.

The courts have upheld that students retain much of their rights to free speech, religious speech, etc. in a school. But teachers in their role as a government worker are in a position where they have some restraints in the classroom.

This document from the Washington ACLU reviews some general guidelines.

Free Speech Rights of Public School Teachers in Washington State

It discusses classroom decorations as well.

Perhaps focusing on the free speech rights in the state in question might be a better starting point than invoking a state in an entirely different region.

The rainbow flag is not disruptive and the message that was accompanying it was certainly nothing controversial for an educator to show support for their students.

 

[muichimotsu]

I'd imagine that flag makes some students uncomfortable, particulary in Missouri. A teacher should seek to estalish an environment that limits the number of distractions. An LGBT flag really doesn't do that in some contexts.

Being uncomfortable is not sufficient to suggest distraction when the student's biases and prejudices are what should be addressed, not some notion that they are being "persecuted" by the presence of a flag that is not telling them they don't matter or insinuating anything like that: quite the contrary in fact

 

[muichimotsu]

For all the conservative complaints about cancel culture, this is the real cancel culture at work.

Vague statement is vague: are you suggesting that the conservative leaning area is being hypocritical in repressing something that they find disagreeable in some way?

That'd be accurate and conservatives honestly are the ones that engage in so called cancel culture far moreso in the idea that someone doing something they disagree with means they should be fired even if there is no violation of contract/ethics/etc and is more a way to suppress differing opinions (Colin Kaepernick and Trump saying he should be fired comes to mind)

 

[muichimotsu]

The problem is that a teacher is a coercive government authority.

Methinks the use of coercive here might be too easily misconstrued as insinuating teachers are indoctrinating students when the idea is that they have authority and the students are considered a "captive" audience

 

[muichimotsu]

The left rejected tolerance years ago.

They openly advocated harassing Republicans on the street.

Citation needed. And if you're cherrypicking, so help me... Some left leaning people advocating this doesn't mean it reflects all left leaning people. Hasty generalization much?

 

[muichimotsu]

Same as flying a Confederate flag. If we're taking those down because people are offended....same can be said for the Pride flag.

Oh, the disingenuous equivocation is palpable: the Confederate flag is associated with traitorous losers that tried to secede on the basis of wanting to retain slavery as a "right". The rainbow flag is about tolerance and accepting that there are people who don't fit into the comfortable box WASPs prefer so that they don't have to think about gender or sexuality in a critical way.

Which one is insinuating that states' rights should always be valued even when they continue a dehumanizing practice? Not the rainbow one, because it's not advocating such a myopic policy even by allusion.

 

[muichimotsu]

I'm glad the Superintendent did his job. Educate kids with non-biased curriculum that gives them the tools they need to enter the world as adults.

They bent to one complaint as far as we can tell and blamed the teacher rather than acknowledging they were vague as to whether the flag was approved or not, so instead they try to pass the buck dishonestly to the employee even when the employee put it past them first to make sure it was okay.

This wasn't a willful revolutionary, they were following protocol and the school betrayed them by crumpling like a napkin to a pearl clutching provocateur that made a thoroughly inaccurate claim about what the teacher's use of the flag would be (or do you think an LGBTQ flag turns people gay by some magic spell?)

 

[muichimotsu]

They don't have to be "equivalent" for a valid point to be made about the teacher telling the student that this is the flag he can pledge allegiance to instead of the flag of his country. That was conveniently omitted from the Original Post here, you may have noticed.

They aren't even in the same remote category beyond both being flags

No one was claiming a pledge of allegiance was involved to the LGBTQ flag, that's a non sequitur and literally just making up something in the context that is not demonstrable. Pretty sure the notion of a pledge of allegiance to the American flag is optional anyway, never really did it much beyond elementary school (at a more "liberal" school, I might add, versus the public school in a "conservative" area)

Cite where the teacher remotely stated that when the flag was meant to be a sign of support for LGBTQ students, along with the banner that said, All are welcome here. You want to talk about facts, bring them up instead of playing a con game here and expecting people to be stupid enough to believe you.

 

[muichimotsu]

If there wasn't a personal agenda behind the flag, the teacher wouldn't have quit.

Way to assume intent with little to no basis. They resigned because they were offered a "solution" based on mistaken assumptions that the class would discuss sexuality remotely. Pretty sure the teacher would've done this OUTSIDE of class time and in a more private context, not just during class.

If an agenda of being accepting and supporting of LGBTQ students is somehow malicious, please explain how that's the case in a way that isn't going to boil down to, "My feelings matter more than facts and being objective rather than objectifying students as political pawns,"

 

[muichimotsu]

It was made relevant by you raising the issue, using that exact term.

Gay pride doesn't mean what you think it means: I'm almost certain you're interpreting pride as arrogance and such, when that's not what the term means in the context of pride as relates to a status like being gay, black, etc. You know...minorities in America?

 

[muichimotsu]

I am discussing the political issue more than the specific case. This has been an issue in many workplaces, most relevant in schools and offices of public officials.

You seem to want to create a right to hang flags and other such items at one's workplace. You want this to be OK for some and not OK for others. You want the school or other employer to have policies that you agree with.

1) I do not believe that anyone has a right to hang a flag in his or her office. And, yes, I strongly support the positions of BLM, and would just as strongly oppose any BLM flags being displayed in a public office space. BTW, this is an issue in the DC offices of senators and House members.

2) That being said, I can understand that some employers might want to accept such displays. I think that they leave themselves open for constant bickering among their employees, and the need for committees, appeals and lots of other wastes of money and time.

3) if you think that NO ONE would want to hang say a Palestinian flags in the offices at their state university office, I can only say that I disagree.

4) What flags are OK? the ones that you choose? the ones that the school chooses? the ones that the school board chooses? the ones that the state legislature chooses? I would think that it might be considered fair for the school board to make these decisions. Perhaps it would be more democratic for the elected officials to set such policies at schools in their state.

5) I well understand that you believe that affirming the rights of homosexuals and welcoming them and their views is not controversial in a school setting. Have you lived in the US for the past 30 years?

BOTTOM LINE
Let us accept your premise that flags should be allowed, and they must they cannot violate certain standards. Are you OK with the local school board deciding what the standards are? Surely, there are no national standards for what should be allowed to be displayed at a local workplace.

What if the local school board decides that is allowable to fly the Confederate flag?

Let's be clear, there are two options
1) this is a free speech issues, and any flags not inciting criminal behavior must be allowed
2) this is a workplace issue and the employer (or someone else) has the right to set standards

Not all flags are equal, first off and to assume they would narrow it to flags not inciting criminal acts is patently myopic and might as well allow any flag that has been brought up.

But then you have people believing BLM incites violence, so they'd complain about that, while I'd note that a Confederate or Nazi flag, while not necessarily inciting criminal acts, is creating an unsafe climate for the students as a whole versus a rainbow flag or BLM flag, because those are not founded in some prohibitive aspect, but advocacy that is positive rather than negative (slavery as a states' rights issue or that non Aryans are somehow impure for the two flags in question).

The problem with democracy in ochlocratic situations is that it can seem democratic while really just encouraging majority or minority tyranny because of various factors that limit participation.

It shouldn't just be a decision by one group, that would create needless bias in the process of assessing.

The workplace standards have to be reasonable, they cannot be preferential. Allowing a pride flag or BLM flag is not comparable to allowing a partisan prejudicial flag that by its nature creates conflict rather than seeking to unify in basic principle that isn't nationalist garbage.

My own high school alma mater's school board has still refused to do away with the thinly veiled Confederate mascot in spite of public pressure because of a majority thinking it's "tradition". I'm not going to just accept the decision of an authority based on that status, I can call out nonsense and argue why it is the case without being some reactionary.

 

[Freth]

They bent to one complaint as far as we can tell and blamed the teacher rather than acknowledging they were vague as to whether the flag was approved or not, so instead they try to pass the buck dishonestly to the employee even when the employee put it past them first to make sure it was okay.

This wasn't a willful revolutionary, they were following protocol and the school betrayed them by crumpling like a napkin to a pearl clutching provocateur that made a thoroughly inaccurate claim about what the teacher's use of the flag would be (or do you think an LGBTQ flag turns people gay by some magic spell?)

A pride flag has no place in a public school, no matter the ideology.

Gay pride doesn't mean what you think it means: I'm almost certain you're interpreting pride as arrogance and such, when that's not what the term means in the context of pride as relates to a status like being gay, black, etc. You know...minorities in America?

We can know what gay pride means. Just look at what goes on at a pride parade.

 

[muichimotsu]

Generally speaking, to know whether you hold a consistent stance on a subject you'd replace the object in question with another.

Would I object to a flag displaying a raised fist?

A.) Yes.

Would I object to a Don't Tread on Me flag being displayed in the classroom?

A.) Yes

Therefore, regardless of the feelings I have behind the symbolism of the pride flag, I should, if I'm consistent in my ideology, also be against the display of the pride flag.

If it's a U.S. social studies classroom, I would not however, object to the flags being taught to the correct age groups; the history of their usage and symbolism as well as what they mean to the people wielding them. That would be consistent with education.

School systems usually have give wide latitude to teachers being able to decorate their classrooms, but I would say displaying the pride flag as a matter of course should not occur.

I don't see the teacher being disciplined for it, just asking him to take it down nicely should've resolved any issue. Why he quit or why it became some major issue is beyond me...

Not all flags are equal, that's the problem, you're treating every symbol as if it has the same impact and creates some divisiveness by nature rather than people's prejudices against LGBTQ or black empowerment in a systemically racist society like America

Did you not read the story? The teacher was not merely asked to take it down: they were asked to sign a promise they would not discuss sexuality in the classroom when that was never their intent to begin with, all based on some parent thinking that the LGBTQ flag's presence was the teacher trying to indoctrinate students to be gay, which is ludicrous

Taking it down was one problem, but then compounding the error by treating the teacher like they were some radical trying to indoctrinate children crossed the line into borderline defamation

 

[muichimotsu]

A pride flag has no place in a public school, no matter the ideology.

Spoken as someone that apparently doesn't recognize what pride means for minorities in America: I'd bet money what you are, but I'm not a gambler

We can know what gay pride means. Just look at what goes on at a pride parade.

Your assumptions are your prejudices, that doesn't reflect fact based on your pearl clutching conservatism that only cares about the children as political pawns and not recognizing they are more capable than you think of understanding issues like LGBTQ identity (not sexuality itself, that should be age appropriate discussions, not the same thing as gender identity or romantic attraction, etc)

 

[Freth]

Spoken as someone that apparently doesn't recognize what pride means for minorities in America: I'd bet money what you are, but I'm not a gambler

Your assumptions are your prejudices, that doesn't reflect fact based on your pearl clutching conservatism that only cares about the children as political pawns and not recognizing they are more capable than you think of understanding issues like LGBTQ identity (not sexuality itself, that should be age appropriate discussions, not the same thing as gender identity or romantic attraction, etc)

I'd post a video of a gay pride parade, but it's not fit to be posted on this forum. There is no defense for that sort of behavior, no matter how you try to sugar coat it.

 

[Hank77]

A teacher isn't teaching students to be gay merely because of the presence of an LGBTQ flag anymore than they're teaching them to be bi, trans, ace, etc

I agree that the teacher isn't teaching them "to be gay" however, I think there shouldn't be anything displayed in a classroom that can't be completely discussed with the students. If a student asks a question about something they see in class the teacher should be able to honestly explain if they can't do that, for any reason, the item shouldn't be there. A gay pride flag is such an item.

 

[super animator]

it seems people here don't understand an analogy.