In a sweeping announcement Wednesday, Durango School District 9-R banned political symbols and flags – specifically those that represent transgender and Black people – from classrooms in response to a complaint alleging that such materials “indoctrinate students.”
Principals at Durango High School and Miller Middle School informed staff members Wednesday of an Oct. 1 directive to the district that “political flags, posters and items displaying political symbols,” must be removed from classrooms in response to a parental complaint.
The policy specifically says Black Lives Matter flags and a variation of the LGBTQ+ pride flag that includes a white, pink and light blue stripe to represent the transgender community, as well as symbolism recognizing intersex people and communities of color, must be removed.
Standard pride flags featuring parallel rainbow colors may stay on display, district spokeswoman Karla Sluis said.
The district is caught “between a rock and a hard place,” she added, as officials balance the legal advice of counsel with what is likely to be unhappy constituents on all sides of this matter.
Teachers were told they must take down the material by Friday’s end. Students would be informed of the decision Monday, according to an internal email from DHS Principal Jon Hoerl sent to all school staff members and leaked to The Durango Herald.
Multiple staff members at Escalante Middle School confirmed they received a similar directive during a meeting the week of Sept. 30.
School and district leaders were also instructed to monitor school facilities to ensure that employees had not posted political symbols.
“School districts are really in the eye of the storm right now,” Sluis said. “They are dealing with our culture wars and all of the focus is on them, which is quite unfortunate when you think about the actual business that we’re in of teaching our students.”
The move has left teachers wondering what, exactly, will be considered political speech, and worried about the message the policy could send to students.
One DHS teacher, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution for speaking with the Herald, said political symbols in his classroom are intended to make students feel welcome, and he was concerned that the policy sends a contrary message.
“I intend for my LGBTQ students to know that my classroom is going to be a safe space for them, where I’m actually going to treat them like a human being,” he said. “And I’m concerned that the message the district is giving is that that’s not a guarantee anymore.”
According to a document resolving a parental complaint presented to staff members and released by Sluis, the district received a parental complaint on Sept. 11 asserting “LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter posters and flags are political symbols that (1) don’t belong in schools, and (2) indoctrinate students.”
The complaint included an image of the offending posters, which included the evolved pride flag known as the intersex inclusive pride progress flag.
Chief Academic Officer Dylan Connell reviewed communications between the complainant and district officials, lesson plans that led to the creation of the posters, judgments rendered by legal counsel and the perspectives of superintendents in other districts around the state.
Connell found that the pride progress and Black Lives Matter symbols are “political in nature” because they “could be and are widely viewed as a statement that ‘further progress and new legislation or governmental action is needed to establish and secure additional needed rights.’”
The traditional pride flag was not deemed by counsel to be political in nature, even though voters will weigh in next month on ballot question Amendment J striking from the Colorado Constitution an antiquated definition of marriage as one man and one woman.
Although students have a right to the freedom of expression as guaranteed in the First Amendment and state law, a teacher’s right to the same expression is a touchier subject.
“Public employees may limit what employees can wear on duty so long as they are neutral about the content of any message on the clothing,” the district’s counsel wrote in response to a series of frequently asked questions on the matter.
School district officials and counsel are concerned that by allowing teachers to engage in some political speech in schools, they would have to allow all political speech.
In an email to the Herald, Sluis said the district may face legal action if the symbols in question are not removed, and acknowledged in an interview that the definition of political speech is up for debate.
“It’s not clear for us, it’s not clear for other districts around the state and country,” she said.
To resolve the complaint, Connell directed staff members to remove all political content, including progress pride flags and Black Lives Matter flags “immediately.” He also said student work of a political nature may be displayed, but only if it is aligned with a current unit; is the creation of existing students in the class; is aligned with the rubric or grading criteria of the associated assignment; or otherwise protected by state law.
In a written statement provided to the Herald, Connell warned that unbridled political speech could work against the district’s intentions to “create safe and welcoming learning places where all students belong and thrive.”
“Student-created work and educational content that is aligned to current standards in a social studies class is OK,” he wrote. “It provokes important dialogue and is part of the curriculum. We will still continue to foster learning environments and practices where students are well, are included, and where their perspectives matter for their personal and collaborative successes.”
Sluis answered questions for the district but initially declined four separate requests to make Connell or Superintendent Karen Cheser available for an interview. Cheser ultimately offered an interview Friday afternoon after the story had been reported.
Political speech often a gray area in public settings
Durango School District 9-R’s new policy banning political speech could complicate questions of what kind of speech is allowed in Durango schools, and how the district can regulate it.
The U.S. Supreme Court has broadly designated three types of forums: public, designated (or limited) and nonpublic. Free speech in traditional public forums may be curtailed only in accordance with reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, while speech in limited public forums can by curtailed by topic or class so long as the application is value-neutral.
In a document resolving a parental complaint over the presence of Black Lives Matter and certain LGBTQ pride flags in classrooms, Chief Academic Officer Dylan Connell said political speech by district employees would create the potential “that the school will be considered an open forum” – a space where free speech is hardly curtailed.
Steve Zansberg, an attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues, said traditional public forums are spaces where all members of the public are entitled to speak freely. Allowing teachers in a school to share political speech does not create the potential that the school will be converted from a limited public forum into a traditional public forum, he said.
In a statement to the Herald, Connell asked, “when we create a limited public forum by posting political expressions, would we be comfortable with posting all political expressions?”
However, as the district acknowledged, schools are already considered a limited public forum.
District 9-R’s legal counsel identified in a FAQ document that Durango schools became a limited public forum when the board decided to grant meeting space for noncurricular groups, such as DHS’ Sexuality and Gender Acceptance club, to convene outside instructional time.
The district may limit the class of speech – which would be to say that political clubs are not allowed – but may not limit speech based on any viewpoint within an allowed class, as the district would be doing if it banned certain political perspectives.
All clubs are constrained by district policy, which regulates how they are created and sustained and is applied equally to all student organizations.
Counsel’s advice to “continue to use the same criteria to allow for student clubs” and “ensure equal access” indicates that the district has found a way to maintain acceptable limits on political speech as it applies to student clubs, but declined to do the same with regard to flags and posters and opted to put the kibosh on it instead.
DHS Principal Hoerl was “visibly nervous” and shaking as he delivered the news during Wednesday’s staff meeting, said another DHS teacher.
Although the district was clear with the Herald that only progress pride and Black Lives Matter symbols had to be removed, that message was unclear with half a dozen teachers who spoke to the paper on the condition of anonymity.
“It does say Black Lives Matter, progress pride flag, or ‘other political symbols’ – I’m not totally sure how to interpret that,”one DHS teacher said.
A second teacher wondered if her “no place for hate” poster would have to be taken down, and what message that would send if so.
Although Sluis said that even the American flag is “not a neutral symbol anymore for our country,” it is “absolutely something that will stay in the classrooms.”
By allowing the standard pride flag, but banning the iteration that specifically recognizes the transgender community on the basis that it is too political for the classroom, the district could risk stigmatizing a vulnerable subset of the LGBTQ+ community, the second teacher said.
Sluis said she expects the banning of one specific iteration of the pride flag, which was the direct result of legal advice, will prompt strong feelings and conversations.
“I think the message that we’re sending is that our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging efforts are more important than any symbol you could put on a wall – it's how we treat our students every single day in the classroom,” she said.
Not everyone agrees.
“Trans students already feel targeted,” the second DHS teacher said. “They already experience mental health issues and suicide at a higher rate, and I just feel like this is only adding to that.”
Tim Macdonald, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, echoed that sentiment.
“When school districts target particular viewpoints or topics for censorship, they interfere with students’ ability to learn, send the message that certain types of views – or certain types of students – aren’t welcome, and risk violating the federal and state constitutions,” Macdonald said in a written statement to the Herald.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
