Ryan Stock, who teaches at Northern Michigan University, speaks out against the removal of gay pride flags in classrooms during Monday’s meeting of the Gwinn Area Community Schools Board of Education. The flags had been removed because legal counsel for GACS deemed them to be political. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

By CHRISTIE MASTRIC

Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — The Gwinn Area Board of Education on Monday decided to keep its current flag policy.

But an earlier decision to remove gay pride flags from classrooms will stand.

The board made the decision following the policy committee’s previous recommendation that the district should not make any changes to the current policy.

If changes had been adopted, it would have been more restrictive and kept the school district from having a planned inclusivity wall in the middle/high school, the committee said.

However, pride flags still will not be allowed as they are considered political in nature.

In a Tuesday telephone interview, GACS Superintendent Brandon Bruce said that some staff members had put up pride flags in their classrooms, which was brought to his attention. Legal counsel advised they are political in nature, and according to school policy, are not allowed.

“That’s not for me to say,” Bruce said.

Trustee Mary Jo Paris-Johns explained her viewpoint during Monday’s meeting. .

“Everybody gets bullied,” she said. “People get threatened. People get beat up. What is our job? We need to do a better job of stopping it. A flag isn’t going to stop it. I’m sorry. I wish it would, but it’s not. If I thought a flag would stop it, I’d say, ‘Put it back up.'”

Secretary Ashley Jenema said, “If we have people that are not comfortable coming to us to report that they’re having problems within our school, then that’s an even larger problem.”

She also stressed that the school district must provide “safe spaces” for everybody, and not move too hastily or not consider the consequences of decisions.

“I hope that we can work together in the future, a little bit more proactively, when we’re looking at these decisions, and honestly, trying to solve problems,” Jenema said.

Regarding a planned inclusivity wall, President John Waldo said, “We celebrate athletics. We celebrate the seniors as we should with murals on the wall. Yes, they (the pride flags) came out of the classroom but we can think of a bigger display of it.”

Waldo said that rules, especially the ones that have been guided by legal counsel, have to be followed.

Dozens of people showed up at the meeting, however, to challenge the school board’s decision to have pride flags removed.

Comments involved people’s identities not being valued or welcomed, bullying and being called negative names, with the pride flag being a symbol of unity.

“You can’t erase the people from the flag,” one individual said.

Northern Michigan University students also wrote a letter to the school board and Bruce, as well as the community at large, in support of LGBTQ2IA+ students in the Gwinn school district.

“The pride flag does not politicize itself, it is merely a symbol of an oppressed community group,” the letter reads. “It is the people who controversialize it that make it political, the same people who likely make GACS spaces unsafe for members of the LGBTQ2IA+ community.”

Ryan Stock, a professor at NMU, spoke out against removal of the flags, noting that he was not officially representing the university.

“You have singled out this ostensibly political flag for removal over flags and symbols perceived as political,” Stock said.

He also stressed that the issue is more than about just a flag.

“This is an aggressive attack on LGBTQ folk in our community,” Stock said. “Your actions amount to clear violations of constitutionally protected freedoms under the First Amendment. Even worse, your actions seem to be an endorsement of a culture of homophobia and transphobia in Gwinn area schools.”

Stock said the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is investigating the Gwinn flag issue.

The inclusivity wall is to be discussed at a committee meeting on diversity and inclusivity on Thursdays.

Bruce said legal counsel believes the wall is a “fantastic idea,” and the district will get input on what it will look like.

“We have a large diverse population from all walks of life and we want all of them to be comfortable at school, and that we accept them all,” said Bruce, who also expressed a desire to address bullying.

“As a society, we need to find common ground,” Treasurer Avis Meyers-Ketola said. “We need to figure out a way how to live together, even with our differences. We have kids from every walk of life, and even with that, I do believe that we have more common ground than we all think.”

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.