Oregon school board bans “divisive” Pride and Black Lives Matter signs

The board of Newberg Oregon School District has voted to ban “political” school signs, including Pride and Black Lives Matter flags.

On Tuesday (August 11), Newberg Oregon School District voted to ban signs, clothing and other items which could be constituted as “political”.

The newly introduced ban will only apply to district staff and faculty, and will not apply to students.

“As a school board, it’s our job to make decisions that are going to be there for every single kid at Newberg High School, not just the kids that are represented in just one group. It has to be all kids,” said school board chair Dave Brown.

Newberg school counsellor Joshua Reid argued against the band, alongside 15 other counsellors, who signed a letter asking the school board to vote against the ban.

“When [Black and LGBTQ] students enter our schools and see the symbols that we mean to communicate love and support and affirmation, they don’t see propaganda or indoctrination or any ideology. They see a glimmer of hope that there can still be safe places and safe people in their schools,” Reid told Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB).

During the board meeting, the school board heard 31 of 90 public comments before ending the public comment portion of the evening, OPB reports.

The Oregon broadcasting outlet also reported the board received over 500 emails ahead of the meeting, as said by Board chair Dave Brown.

“It still goes back to the fact that we have a lot of kids that are impacted by this positively or negatively,” Brown said. “As a school board, it’s our job to make decisions that are going to be there for every single kid at Newberg High School, not just the kids that are represented in just one group – it has to be all kids.”

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