Since Idaho public school was last in session, House Bill 41 went into effect. The bill was written, proposed, and passed within a matter of weeks after an incident in a West Ada middle school classroom.
Now, teachers are banned from hanging posters, banners, and flags that “represent a political viewpoint.” With school starting next week, there’s still some confusion on what that means.
What the Attorney General Says
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has been a vocal contributor to the alignment of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies with, as he wrote in a Fox News op-ed, a “comprehensive worldview that undermines parental authority over children’s moral development.”
The acronym “DEI” has been so thoroughly lambasted that it’s mostly been abandoned by the people who promoted policies with the term. But conservatives like Labrador and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who Labrador cited in his op-ed, are still getting mileage out of it.
According to Labrador, DEI policies are a disguise for indoctrination. To him, a teacher putting signs in her classroom that say “Everyone is Welcome Here” with rainbow colors and raised hands of a range of skin tones cross the line into promoting a political ideology.
What the Teacher Who Refused to Take Down a Poster Says
Sarah Inama, who displayed those flags and refused the West Ada School District’s orders to take them down, told City Cast Boise in mid-July that she thought parts of Labrador’s argument were inaccurate to her situation, and disagreed that her poster indicated a political ideology.
“I work very hard to make sure that my students don't know my political view, they don't know my religious views, and I want them to learn the curriculum that I'm teaching,” she said. “How is a sign that's letting students in my classroom know that they're welcome there — no matter what they look like — detrimental or damaging or indoctrinating to any student?
After finishing the semester for West Ada, Inama got a new job with the Boise School District. Amid the social media-fueled criticisms of West Ada, the Boise School District posted a photo of 15 administrators wearing “everyone is welcome here” T-shirts on Facebook, which received over 5,500 reactions.
The bill only applies to flags, banners, and posters. As Idaho EdNews clarified in an FAQ feature on the bill, it allows for religiously affiliated holiday items like Easter egg baskets and Christmas trees. The American flag, Indigenous tribal flags, military flags, and the flags of nations that the U.S. is not in “hostile action” with are exempt from the ban.
The day after the ban went into effect, someone filed a complaint with the state saying that the display of the phrase “In God We Trust” violates the ban. The Idaho Department of Education said it does not.
