Hundreds of students and supporters walked out at Sonoma Valley High School in Sonoma, Calif., on Oct. 13, five days after the district’s board voted to stop flying the Pride flag every day, the Sonoma Index-Tribune reported.
Students left class at 11:50 a.m. The school’s GSA organized it. The next morning, students and neighbors planted small Pride flags on the front lawn.
“It’s no secret that the flag came down because of homophobic sentiments,” GSA President Madeleine Edwards told the Sonoma Valley Sun before the walkout. “I hope that we can bring the pride flag back.”
Sonoma Valley Pride’s photos and videos from the Oct. 13 protest, shared by @sonomavalleypride.
Sonoma Valley Unified Trustees Voted 3-2 on Oct. 8 to Limit School Flags
The Sonoma Valley Unified School District board approved the policy Oct. 8, Patch reported. Board President David Bell, Catarina Landry and Jason Lehman voted yes. Anne Ching and Gerardo Guzman voted no.
Every district school now has to fly the U.S. and California flags on school days, and schools can add their own school flag. Symbolic flags for a group need board approval and can only go up during designated awareness months.
A Progress Pride flag had flown at the high school daily since 2019.
“Our job as trustees is to represent all students equally, a principle that runs throughout our board philosophy policy,” Bell said at the meeting. “When the flag went up in 2019, no process was created for any other group to apply.”
He added, “What was called inclusion became, in practice, exclusion of all but one group.”
Bell had ordered the flag taken down in January. After protests, it went back up four days later, and Bell apologized in an open letter, Patch reported. He said then that he personally supported the flag. Superintendent Jason Sutter had recommended earlier this year that the Pride flag keep flying, the Sun reported.
Lisa Storment, president of the group Wake Up Sonoma, told KRON4 she was “extremely disappointed in the school board.” She added, “I’m very, very encouraged by the students who have decided that this fight isn’t over for them yet either.”
About 60 staff members signed a memo to students. “We value our LGBTQ+ students,” it said. “You belong at Sonoma Valley High School and are an integral part of our Dragon community.”
A newly elected trustee joins the five-member board in December, after the Nov. 3 election, according to the Sun.
Hastings School Board Sends Policy 505 Back for Legal Review
In Hastings, Minn., parents and teachers lined up at an Oct. 21 school board meeting to speak against a draft of Policy 505, “Distribution, Posting, and Display of Materials on School District Property,” KSTP reported.
The draft would bar non-school-sponsored materials that promote a personal, religious or ideological viewpoint not tied to the curriculum. Critics say that could pull Pride flags from classrooms.
“This is essentially a rainbow ban among many other things,” said Jessie Nowak, a district graduate and parent. “We want them to put policies in place that serve every single student and family in this district.”
The district’s lawyers are reviewing it. “And then we will bring it back to the board for our November or December work session,” Vice Chair Jessica Dressely said. The board wants a final policy by the end of the year.
Detroit Lakes, Minn., is ahead of Hastings on the same fight. Its board banned rainbow stickers and flags in July, then rescinded the ban Sept. 28 after the ACLU of Minnesota sued, KAXE reported. A board committee then delayed its own Policy 505 rewrite.
“We concluded to delay it,” board member Michael Walther told MPR News this month.
