DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Only certain flags will be allowed to be flown outside De Pere schools, after the school board approved a new flag policy Monday night.
The policy is scaled back dramatically from what was being considered.
The new policy restricts which flags can fly outside De Pere schools, however it stops short of saying which flags can’t be displayed inside buildings.
“Just the research that we’ve done proves that we need to implement something,” said Brittony Cartwright, a school board member.
In front of a capacity crowd, public speakers were almost evenly split on a policy that would have required school board approval for any flag to be displayed anywhere on school grounds besides the flags for the United States, Wisconsin, De Pere, and U.S. Military Prisoners of War and Missing in Action.
“We are here to educate our children,” sad Tamara Gasparick, who supported a flag policy. “To me, this is something to indoctrinate children and that’s not what you are here for.”
Most opponents of the flag policy felt it was a move to ban the display of the pride flag, which supports the LGTBQ+ community.
“Those of the LGBTQ+ community, especially in young children, they are at much higher risk for self-harm, from suicides, to other types of damage,” said Steven Linden, a De Pere parent. “By removing flags at the discretion of teachers, I feel we are putting our students at risk for harm.”
After hearing from the public, the school board decided to scale back its proposed flag policy to only pertain to flags flown outside.
“I don’t think there was an intent for us to necessarily ban one specific flag or banning one targeted flag,” said Chad Jeskewitz, the vice president of the school board. “I think it was meant to put in purpose for us to look at what is being displayed in schools, see if they are appropriate, if they are divisive.”
“I find this whole thing has been unnecessary from the start,” said Adam Clayton, school board president. “There hasn’t been a problem. I haven’t seen a reason that we’ve had to do this. There’s never been one provided.”
The board voted unanimously for the revised policy after about 90 minutes of discussion. This is the third meeting where De Pere’s school board has discussed this issue in the past three months.
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