Removal of rainbow flag protested in Chesterton
Parents, students push for symbols of inclusion inside classroom
Angie Vicari stood outside Chesterton Middle School late Monday afternoon holding a rainbow balloon that fluttered in the breeze.
In the bright sun, as Andra Day’s “Rise Up” blared from nearby speakers, Vicari joined about 225 other people, there to support the LBGTQ community after Duneland school administrators directed three middle school teachers to take rainbow flags and related items off of their walls because of parent and student complaints that the items, according to the school corporation, “conflicted with their personal social and/or political beliefs.”
Vicari, of Chesterton, said her two children attended the Duneland schools for grades K-12.
“Both my kids are represented on this flag,” she said, gesturing toward one of several rainbow flags flying in the crowd.
The flags, Vicari said, are not political, but “very personal” for students trying to find their way in life. Fighting back tears, she said she was upset that teachers were not getting the support they needed to support the students.
“It’s the perfect opportunity for them to come out and do something positive instead of creating something negative,” she said of the administration.
The peaceful protesters gathered first at nearby Chesterton Park, then walked to the auditorium entrance to the middle
school. The school board was scheduled to meet about a $168 million bond issue for districtwide building projects and initially, administrators said in a statement that would remain the only matter on the agenda, though they later relented and allowed the protesters into the meeting to present their concerns after the hearing on the building project.
Parents and students at the protest said the controversy started about a week ago, after complaints to the administration about the rainbow flags at the middle school.
The complaints about the flags, officials said, were reviewed and it was determined the items were not directly related to the curriculum for those respective classrooms. The complaints also caused a significant disruption to the learning environment, officials said.
After the teachers were told to remove the items, between 25 and 35 middle school students “expressed their displeasure for the removal of the items by walking out of school for 20 minutes” on Friday, the corporation said. The corporation also said officials do not condone walking out of school “because it is a disruption to the educational process and presents unique challenges from a student safety standpoint.”
Still, officials said, they understood that decisions regarding attendance and student participation in events including walkouts are personal for each student and family, and administrators, staff and members of the Chesterton Police Department monitored the situation.
“The Duneland School Corporation promotes inclusion and diversity, while striving to maintain a learning environment in which all students and staff are respected without promoting or advocating a particular point of view,” officials said.
In prepared remarks, School Board President Brandon Kroft, Superintendent Chip Pettit and CMS Principal Mike Hamacher said the Duneland schools are committed to ensuring students receive a safe, inclusive, equitable and collaborative learning experience.
“It is not the intent of the school corporation to advocate any specific position on these social issues, but to promote a learning environment that is respectful of all,” Kroft said.
One of the many ways teachers work with students, Pettit said, is by leading balanced discussions on social and political issues that pertain to their curriculum.
“This also includes mentoring students as they learn to assume their place in our democratic society and develop strategies to express themselves,” he said.
Officials respect the rights of students and staff to express themselves, Hamacher said, but from time to time students and/or staff may express their point of view on a social or political issue that some may see as controversial or offensive.
“In these instances, if there is a disruption to the learning environment, a student or staff member may be asked to refrain from continuing to promote that point of view,” he said.
Neither the statement from the school corporation nor the individual remarks from administrators specified the nature of the items in the CMS classrooms that generated the complaints.
Back at the park, the colorfully clad crowd, holding signs that said, “Support all students now” and with similar slogans, said they wanted a school environment of inclusion, not exclusion, where all students felt welcome.
“We want kids to know where to get help when they need it,” Duneland parent Jennifer Camacho told the crowd, adding they didn’t want “false allies” with flags in all classrooms.
Kids shouldn’t be bullied, she said, and her goal was to gain a spot on the school board’s agenda to help the district find “a nice medium” where everyone is included.
“While I can’t speak for others, at times it has been unwelcome for my family,” she said, adding the crowd at the park “says volumes.”
Camacho was accompanied by her son Ryan, 15, a freshman at Chesterton High School, and daughter Irene, 13, a seventh grader at CMS, who told her mom that the rainbow flags had been removed at her school.
“They should’ve just taken a step back and said with these flags and symbols around, kids feel like they belong here,” Ryan Camacho said. He saod his eighth grade teacher at the middle school had a flag in the classroom. “Without it, I would have been lost.”
Likewise, a 13-year-old seventh grader said she was “ecstatic” to see a rainbow flag and other similarly themed items in her teacher’s classroom at the start of the year.
The removal of the items, she said, was emotional and she was mad enough about it to email Hamacher, the CMS principal, on Sunday. On Monday she said she had yet to receive a response.
“I thought the best way to approach it was in a respectable way,” she said. She said her email noted that Hamacher genuinely cared about the students but there were a couple of “fatal flaws” in the district’s approach to the flags that contradicted its mission.
“I hope we can overcome this,” she said.